- Saturday, June 03, 2023
Community leaders, councillors and local police have agreed upon the review, says mayor Sir Soulsby
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
An independent review will be conducted into the recent unrest in Leicester, the city’s mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has said.
The exercise aims at finding out the reasons for the disorder last weekend and what can be done to prevent confrontations in the future. However, no appointment has yet been made to oversee the process.
Community leaders, councillors and local police agreed upon the review at a “constructive” meeting held on Wednesday evening.
Soulsby told the BBC that the participants at the meeting were determined to ensure that the disorder would not damage harmony in the East Midlands city.
“My intention is to have a review of what led up to the events at the weekend, and also to seek some independent thoughts on how we all – council, police and communities – can learn from this, and what we can do at a local level to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” the mayor said.
Some 47 people have been arrested and two convicted after trouble broke out on Saturday and spilled over to the next day. Police have said more arrests are likely over the unrest fanned by “false news” on social media.
The Leicester disorder which, according to the force, saw the involvement of some people from Birmingham and Luton, was followed by a protest at a Hindu temple in Smethwick in the West Midlands on Tuesday evening.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman met Leicestershire Police on Thursday and held discussions with the temporary chief constable Rob Nixon and other senior officers.
London mayor Sadiq Khan called for solidarity between British Hindus and Muslims and urged people to be vigilant against “extremist forces”.
“We should be eternally on our guard against extremist forces who seek to stoke up tensions between our communities for their own selfish ends,” Khan said as he reminded the communities that they had many things in common.
The BBC said police encouraged people to prepare for the upcoming Hindu festivals of Navratri, assuring them that there would be a “visible and strengthened police presence will be there for all communities”.
