Tariq Jahan Urges people not to seek revenge for his son's death

It would have been so easy to demand ‘an eye for an eye’ and risk a race war on the riot-torn streets.But with immense dignity, Tariq Jahan, whose 21-year-old son was mown down and killed in an apparently racist murder in Birmingham, appealed for calm yesterday.Haroon Jahan was one of three young Muslims who died after they were thrown into the air ‘like tennis balls’ when they were hit by a car which mounted the pavement at 50mph while they were trying to protect local shops from looters on Tuesday night.The shocking killings, the worst incident in four nights of rioting across Britain, left the city a tinderbox after it was confirmed that the man arrested on suspicion of murdering the Asians is black.Locals claimed that Afro-Caribbean gangs had been prowling the area, setting light to cars and shouting at Muslims ‘you will burn’ just before the alleged murders.As racial tensions rose to boiling point with some Muslims calling for ‘retribution’, 45-year-old Mr Jahan – who desperately tried to revive his dying son – urged people not to seek revenge.Standing on a wall in front of a crowd he said: ‘I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites – we all live in the same community.‘Why do we have to kill one another? Why are we doing this?‘Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.’The Prime Minister, on a visit to Birmingham, offered his condolences for the ‘truly dreadful’ deaths.