Informant who triggered Forest Gate raid was an 'utter incompetent'
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The Forest Gate anti-terror raid was triggered by a man with an IQ of just 69 who was described as an "utter incompetent" when he was jailed for a terror offence, it was claimed yesterday.
Scotland Yard has insisted that a single reliable source was behind the raid in which Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, was shot and arrested along with his brother Abul Koyair, 20. They were released without charge several days later.
Police refused to comment on reports in the Sunday Mirror that the intelligence came from a former waiter, Mohammed Abu Bakr Mansha, 22, a childhood friend of the men, who was jailed in January for possessing an old address of a decorated British soldier in what police suspected was a terror plot. His IQ is reportedly 31 points below the average of 100.
The report said that the brothers had been put under surveillance after visiting their old friend in prison, but simply thought it was a "joke". Meanwhile it was claimed that Mansha, who is appealing against his sentence, was moved to a lower category jail.
Hundreds of protesters against the raid marched through London yesterday, demanding an unqualified apology from the police and Prime Minister. Brandishing banners which read "Police brutality never makes us feel safer" and "How can we trust you if you see us all as terrorists?" protesters chanted as they walked past the house that officers stormed on 2 June. The marchers vented their anger at the Metropolitan Police commissioner, chanting: "Shame, shame, Ian Blair, we will not live in fear," and "Shoot to kill you do allow, who commits terror now?"
Mr Koyair led the march, joined by the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in July last year after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.
A friend, Yasmin Khan, said: "The key issue is, one year on from Jean Charles's killing, police have not learnt any of the lessons."
Through streets lined with police, an estimated 1,500 people walked slowly past the site of the anti-terror raid in Lansdown Road, east London. The protest went on to the police station, where organisers handed in a statement of seven points they wanted addressed.
Muddassar Ahmad, a spokesman, said: "We clearly, clearly want an apology unqualified. If you're going to apologise, apologise properly, don't apologise for 'hurt'." Mr Ahmad added: "What's needed now is confidence-building measures the community is feeling very isolated. Police officers have admitted privately that years of confidence-building have been put back." The statement also called for an "end to the association of Islam with terrorism" and an urgent review of the " war on terror".
Last week, after the brothers gave a dramatic account of the raid, Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman apologised for the "hurt" the police may have caused. He was made a CBE in the Queen's birthday honours, announced on Friday.