Brick Lane curry house smashed up in suspected racist attack after EU exit poll
Brick Lane curry house owner Azmal Hussain examines the damage - Credit: Archant
Wreckers have smashed windows of a curry house in London’s Brick Lane owned by a leading ‘Remain’ campaigner who fears a racist attack.
Brick Lane curry house owner Azmal Hussain examines the damage - Credit: Archant
Azmal Hussain arrived at his Preem restaurant in London’s East End this-morning to find 13 windows broken.
He has now called on the Mayor of Tower Hamlets for help in the wake of a rise in racist attacks in London—revealed yesterday by the Metropolitan Police commissioner following last month’s EU exit poll.
“This is racism so I called the mayor,” Azmal told the East London Advertiser.
“Everyone in the community knows me as an active ‘remain’ campaigner—everyone knows it.
Brick Lane curry house owner Azmal Hussain examines the damage - Credit: Archant
“I’ve campaigned on Bangla TV for Britain to stay in the EU which may have triggered this incident.
“Our community from India has been here 200 years—we have a right to be here.”
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The 64-year-old grandfather who arrived in the East End as a young man had to suspend his restaurant business this-morning while police examined the place.
He had his windows smashed and his car daubed with paint last year during a contentious High Court election trial when he and three other high profile anti-corruption activists brought down Lutfur Rahman’s corrupt Town Hall administration.
Now he is urging the Asian community in Brick Lane—scene of a wave of racist attacks back in the 1970s—to be vigilant.
“But don’t take law into your own hands,” he urged. “I am upset by this latest attack on my business, but ask all the people to stay together.
“We have to accept the referendum verdict, but it doesn’t mean we should do anything wrong. We have to leave it to the government to sort out what happens with the EU.”
The rise in racist incidents in the wake of the exit referendum result is worrying local mayor John Biggs who has asked senior Tower Hamlets council officers to monitor the situation on the streets in what is one of Britain’s most diverse yet socially-deprived boroughs.
The mayor said immediately after the ‘EU exit’ vote that he was “confident the East End will pull together and not allow the ‘leave’ vote to divide us”.
Tower Hamlets voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU by 73,011 to 35,244—but nationally, the vote was lost by 52 per cent.
