UK: Brawl breaks out at Holi event in Harrow, one held

LONDON: A brawl broke out between Muslim youths and Hindus at a Holika Dahan celebration in Harrow on Tuesday night after three teenagers forcefully stopped the music at the event. The violence led to the arrest of a 14-year-old boy.

The International Siddhashram Shakti centre held the event in Harrow civic centre car park, opposite Harrow Central Mosque. Dignitaries, including mayors and councillors, were among around 1,000 guests at the event, which began at 7 pm and included a puja and ceremonial lighting of the Holika fire.

At 8.30 pm, by which time the VIPs had left, three teenage boys turned up and pulled the wires out of the sound system — which was playing devotional music — causing the music to stop.“They chucked the speakers on the ground and ran away. The speakers are now broken. They came from the mosque area,” said Hindu spiritual leader Shri Rajrajeshwar Guruji, founder and chairperson of the centre.

“Five minutes later they returned with 15 to 20 boys, some in balaclavas, and one with a talwar, and they threw beer cans into the fire, threw glass bottles and hurled barriers on the ground. The Sikh security went over and they tried to harm them as well,” Rajrajeshwar Guruji said. “They wanted to fight and we were trying to defend ourselves. It got out of control, so we called the police,” he added. “As soon as the boys heard the sirens, they ran off, but our team chased them and caught one boy and handed him over to police,” he said.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “A 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of affray following an incident in Harrow. Police were called to reports of a disturbance at a civic centre in Station Road at around 20.50 hours (8.50 pm local time) on March 3. Police arrived on scene within minutes and arrested the boy.”

One volunteer who tried to break up the fight had his garland pulled off and was left with cuts on his neck and bruises.

“Our security guys spoke to the mosque and even the mosque is concerned and they want to know who did it so they can ban them. We have good relations with the mosque,” Rajrajeshwar Guruji said.