I thought cops were going to shoot us

Jul 31 2005 By Caroline Smith & Eleanor Gregson, The Sunday Sun

A man arrested at gunpoint on suspicion of being a suicide bomber revealed yesterday: "I thought I was going to be shot."

The terrified train passenger was seized by armed police along with his pal Foyej, pictured left, while travelling from Newcastle to London last week.

Both were released without criminal charge and police later admitted neither had terrorist links. One is still being quizzed by Immigration Officials in Oxford.

The pair had been travelling to the capital on Tuesday evening when they were ordered from the train and surrounded by armed cops.

They swooped at Grantham Station in Lincolnshire after a tip-off by two off-duty Metropolitan Police officers who thought one of the men looked like a suspect wanted over devices which failed to explode on July 21 in London.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Sun through an interpreter, the softly spoken 22-year-old asked us not to name him for fear of being victimised.

At his Newcastle home he told us: "I was completely terrified and thought they were going to shoot us.

"If we had panicked and ran I have no doubt we would be dead.

"They screamed at us to freeze as soon as we stepped on to the platform and forced us on to the ground.

"I thought we were going to die. If they can shoot a Brazilian man in ordinary clothes what would they think of me with a beard and wearing full Muslim dress? All I could do was pray."

The man, who is a respected member of Newcastle's Bangladeshi Community Association, was travelling to London to visit his family, while his companion was due to catch a flight home from Heathrow to Bangladesh after a holiday.

He recalled: "We stopped at Grantham and they announced that there was a security alert.

"Two men were going round whispering to other passengers telling them to get off the train, but we didn't realise what was happening.

"Then they told us to get off the train and that's when they surrounded us. I have never been so scared."

The men were taken to Lincolnshire police station and were quizzed by officers on behalf of the Met's anti-terrorist squad. The pair were held for more than 12 hours before being released without charge.

He said: "They were asking me questions about where I was on the day of the London bombings, and did I have any proof, and asking why I work in Newcastle when my family are in London."

And he revealed his ordeal has left him terrified of using public transport or travelling to the capital: "I don't know how I will visit my family in London anymore, because now I would be too afraid to take a train or a plane.

"These terrorists and suicide bombers are giving all Muslims a bad name and leaving ordinary people like us to deal with the consequences.

"This is not a Holy War. If they want to fight a Holy War, go somewhere where there is a Holy War."

Racist attacks on the increase

The Muslim community in the North has suffered a bitter backlash following the terrorist attacks in London. Eleanor Gregson reports.

Like many in today's climate of fear, the simple act of getting on a bus has become something fraught with imagined danger.

While for some it is the thought that suicide bombers might strike, for British Muslim Muhammad Ismail it is the fear that he might be mistaken for a terrorist . . . and suffer the consequences.

Muhammad, of Heaton in Newcastle, now refuses to use public transport.

He revealed: "I'm too frightened in case I get a gun put to the back of my head."

The 27-year-old, who has just enrolled on a PhD at Newcastle University, says he has suffered racial abuse ever since the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.

The abuse steadily worsened for Muhammad, until he was attacked while travelling on a train from Newcastle to Sheffield.

He said: "A Muslim woman had got on the train and she took her head scarf off, obviously not wanting to draw attention to the fact that she was Muslim.

"But these three lads started giving her hassle, so I stepped in and asked them to leave her alone and they started on me, calling me Bin Laden and they beat me up."

There are about 40,000 Muslims in the North, and many have tales similar to that of Muhammad to tell.

Raed Al-Ahmadi, who is the President of the Newcastle University Mosque, revealed he was refused admission onto a bus shortly after the attacks in London, simply because of his appearance.

The 27-year-old, originally from Saudi Arabia, said: "It upset me, rather than making me angry, but I understand why the driver did it."

However, Muhammad is quick to stress that it is only a minority of the public who are reacting to the Muslim community in a negative way.

"The British public have a mindset that is much more open than those in the United States," he said.

Muhammad, who was travelling to London yesterday to lecture, was concerned but prepared for the reaction he may receive from police on high alert in the capital.

He said: "I'm completely prepared for the car to be searched, I know it will happen. I won't be using the Tube in London.

"I also won't be taking a rucksack. If I was to take one I would get shot.

"Someone sees you running for the Tube and they shoot you in the head. It would be very risky."

Page 2: Ordeal makes family frightened