A mid-air row involving their mother is believed to have precipitated the chaotic arrest of two men at Manchester Airport in which one was kicked in the face and stamped on the head by a police officer. As demonstrators protest on the streets of Manchester and Rochdale over the treatment of the Fahir and Amaad Khan, family sources have claimed they were defending their mother the day they were taken into custody by police.
It is claimed that the pair’s mother, who was flying into Manchester on Tuesday evening from Pakistan , was involved in a row while the plane was in the air with a male passenger. Insiders say that while she was picking up her luggage in Terminal 2 the same man pushed her with his trolley and made racist comments towards her, with the mother later pointing him out to her sons. The sources claim that the row became more heated when one of the son’s confronted the man, before a physical altercation took place and the police were called.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the family claims that the family walked away and were confronted by armed police near the ticket machines, during which one officer allegedly struck the mother in the face. This claim has not been independently verified, with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) not releasing any bodycam footage of this part of the encounter so far and no video shot by passersby released on social media. GMP claims after the initial encounter its officers were assaulted and ‘punched to the ground’ with three left needing hospital treatment including one female PC who had a broken nose.
No footage of this part of the incident has been released online either, with the first videos showing Fahir lying on the ground with his hands behind his back and Amaad sat on a chair with his hands above his head. Multiple angles of the incident after this point have since been released online, with 19-year-old Fahir seen being kicked in the face and stamped on the head by a police officer, before he and his brother are hauled away by police. The family’s lawyer Akhmed Yakoob claims that Fahir has since been diagnosed with a cyst on his brain after becoming unwell yesterday, although it is not clear if this was present before the incident.
Separate videos have since emerged showing police officers arresting two other men moments later, with one officer using incapacitant spray on a man who was filming the scene. The footage has sparked outcry with protests on the streets of Manchester and Rochdale yesterday, the latter of which saw demonstrators throw eggs at a police station and the former seeing calls for the officers involved to be sacked. It has sparked Lord Walney, who is the Government’s independent adviser on political violence, to warn that against protesters descending into ‘mob rule’.
He has called on those angry with the footage to allow official investigations to take place – one of the policemen involved in the incident has been suspended and the IOPC has received referrals from GMP about two officers. ‘The force deployed by the now-suspended officer looked egregious and must be urgently investigated,’ he told The Telegraph. ‘But it was also alarming to see a gang gathering outside Rochdale police station in response and senior figures warning of unrest unless their demands are met. Justice must be served in this case but people cannot demand due process in one breath then subvert it by threatening mob rule if they don’t get their way.’
Paul Waugh, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said he had spoken to the family involved and their priorities are the ‘health and wellbeing’ of the men and their mother, as well as the ‘need for justice to be done and seen to be done’. He added: ‘The family also want me to make it crystal clear that they have no political agenda, do not condone political violence, and do not want to take part in any protests. They wanted me to appeal for calm and I hope that appeal is heeded. And while there is clearly deep concern about this incident, there is also a vital need not to let extremists of any kind hijack these events for their own ends.’
He added: ‘The family have told me they certainly do not want to become the centre of a media circus either. They want the privacy and time to allow them to heal, physically and mentally. This is a hard working Rochdale family, some of whose members are police officers themselves and are therefore particularly shocked at what they have witnessed.’ On Wednesday night there were protests against the treatment of the brothers outside Rochdale Police Station, and these continued on Thursday with demonstrators marching in the streets of Manchester.
On Wednesday night there were protests against the treatment of the brothers outside Rochdale Police Station, and these continued on Thursday with demonstrators marching in the streets of Manchester. The rally, which had campaign group Stand Up To Racism in attendance, saw people calling for the officers involved in the incident to lose their jobs. Chants of ‘We want them sacked’, ‘No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police’ and ‘What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!’ were heard being shouted by marchers. Many at the protest were holding signs saying ‘GMP is racist’, ‘Fight Police Racism’ and ‘ Black Lives Matter ‘. Some were also carrying Union Flags with the words ‘No Justice, No Peace’ written on them.
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