A shocked community scarred by riots lined the streets here Thursday to support a father hailed as a hero for his dignified response to his son's death. Tariq Jahan's son, 21-year-old Haroon Jahan, was one of three men of Pakistani origin killed when the worst riots in living memory rocked Birmingham, Britain's second city.
Dozens of bunches of flowers were laid around two lampposts by the entrance to the petrol station which the young men were guarding from looters early Wednesday before they were mown down by a car travelling at high speed. The deaths, in the inner-city suburb of Winson Green and widely believed to be at the hands of looters of Afro-Caribbean descent, stunned a racially mixed area where relations between different communities are largely good.
Skyrocketing tensions threatened to erupt into a wave of inter-ethnic violence late Wednesday as young men of Asian descent vowed to take revenge. Even police have acknowledged that it was only an emotional plea from Jahan not to seek revenge for his son's death that lowered the temperature and saved the area from a second night of violence.
"I don't want there to be any more trouble, anyone getting hurt," he told an angry crowd of some 150 men, some wearing hoods and preparing to march through the area. "I don't want any of you to fight," he said. "My son died defending the community he lived in. We're part of this community so please go home."
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