They needn’t worry about the shoot to kill policy if they stop when called upon to do so. It does now appear that the man shot by police near the subway was not connected with the bombings and they admit to shooting the wrong man. From Arab News, with thanks to Skeet Street.
LONDON “” Muslims gathered for afternoon prayers yesterday with renewed fears of a backlash against Britain’s Islamic community after a string of new terror attacks.
Amid the anxiety, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of one of the city”s largest mosques, and police investigated an apparent attempt to set fire to the home of one of the suspected suicide bombers in the first attacks on July 7.
When undercover officers on the London Underground yesterday shot and killed a man who was described by witnesses as South Asian, the news swept through Britain’s Muslim community of 1.6 million. The death came on the heels of a series of failed bombings Thursday, in which four men placed backpacks of explosives on three trains and a bus.
“I have just had one phone call saying “˜What if I was carrying a rucksack?” said Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, following the shooting. “We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy.”
Police said officers were operating on a “shoot-to-stop” policy when facing an imminent life threat.
London Mayor Ken Livingston, however, explained: “If you are dealing with someone who might be a suicide bomber, if they remain conscious, they could trigger plastic explosives or whatever device is on them. Therefore overwhelmingly, in these circumstances, it is going to be a shoot-to-kill policy.”…