"Unfortunately I think there was a series of mistakes which I think the Met should learn from," said Qureshi

LONDON – A bloody terror raid on a Muslim house in east London has sparked calls for reforming Scotland Yard, especially after the two Muslim arrestees were later freed without charges.

"Unfortunately I think there was a series of mistakes which I think the Met should learn from," Murad Qureshi, the local Labour councilor, told the BBC News Online on Saturday, June 10.

Qureshi, also a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) which supervises London police, said Scotland Yard should be totally overhauled.

"They cover everything from the collection of intelligence and how you corroborate that ... through to how the suspects are actually dealt with, particularly in this case how we find ourselves with one of the brothers shot," he added.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23 and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, were released on Friday, June 9 without charge after days of detention on terror suspicions.

More than 250 police officers burst into the house of the two Muslims after an informant gave information about the preparation of a portable device containing cyanide that had been built and was ready to be used.

During the operation, Kahar was shot in the upper right hand side of his chest, with the bullet exiting through his shoulder.

Counter-terrorism officials later told the Guardian that the intelligence was wrong and based on a single apparently uncorroborated source.

'Errors'

"Some recognition that mistakes have been made would go some way towards the damage done," Bunglawala said.

Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, the main umbrella body of the Muslim minority, said police needed to acknowledge its mistakes.

"Some recognition that mistakes have been made would go some way towards the damage done," he told Reuters.

"Even at the height of the IRA bombing campaign in the 1970s we didn't see the police storming into innocent Irish people's homes on this kind of scale."

Bunglawala said acknowledging police errors will prevent extremist groups from exploiting resentment in the Muslim minority.

The Independent reported on June 6 that many angry Muslims were considering to leave Britain feeling no longer safe following the high-profile raid.

Many MPs have also warned that the raid risks harming relations with the Muslim minority in the country, estimated at some 1.8 million people.

They said if the raids turned out to be mistaken Muslims would feel "confronted and embattled."

British Muslims are staging a demonstration later Sunday outside Scotland Yard headquarters in London.

"With the intensification of 'terror raids' throughout the country and 'trial by media' sensationalism, communities are under severe attack and must show unity," said the Muslim campaigners, including the Muslim Association of Britain and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, in a joint statement.