Leeds police have arrested 13 Bangladeshi men over a violent brawl at the Bangladeshi Community Centre during its annual general meeting last Saturday night.
An amateur video circulating on the internet shows chairs being hurled, makeshift weapons being swung and flurries of punches and kicks.
Arif Hussain, who represents the Harehills area for Leeds City Council, claims the fight was between two rival factions who both wanted to run the community centre on Roundhay Road.
The Mirror Online quoted him as saying: “I’m shocked. It’s completely unacceptable.
“There are 802 members and it’s up to them to decide who they want to run the centre, just like for an MP or a councillor.”
The councillor continued that the rift was a long one with one group claiming to being endorsed by the community while the other group claimed they should be running the centre.
“It’s not great for the community, it’s not great for the area, it’s not great for the city,” he was further quoted by the news website.
A witness, requesting anonymity, told the Daily Mail around a half of the 80-90 people in the congregation were fighting and he claimed to have seen blood and grazes.
He said “seeing the police officer throwing the punch was quite shocking” but admitted that police “were completely outnumbered”.
“They went to try to calm things down and ended up being attacked as well so the fact that they retaliated is understandable.”
The eyewitness also said the fight was between two factions of the community ‘with a different school of thought’ and wanted to ‘run the centre’.
Leeds police’s Chief Inspector Nik Adams told the Daily Mail the law enforcers quickly called in backup and brought the situation under control. Chairman of the community centre, Mohammed Afzal Hossain, told the newspaper his version of the circumstances leading to the fight.
“We already knew that we might have trouble with them so we had a couple of police officers at the meeting.”
More than 100,000 people have watched the violent incident online.
Source: bdnews24
What a shame !!
Some 100 idiots, so-called ‘educated’ lots, out of a total of 800 Bangalee population in Leeds, fight over control over a Bangladeshi Community Centre. !! Police had to be called in & a dozen are arrested !! What a shame !! Chi Chi Chi !!
Surprised, are you ?? Bangalees are same any place, be it here or in the Moon !! Poor despicable stock !!