- guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 5 2001 17.02 BST
Hundreds of extra officers have been guaranteed by the West Yorkshire force to back up a city-wide plan to cold-shoulder any attempt by the National Front to use a handful of members to trigger violent counter-protests.
Organised disdain across the city gathered pace yesterday with a 'clear off' statement from all parties on Bradford council and appeals for restraint in the Asian community. Hopes that the day will pass off peacefully have been raised by the success last weekend of Bradford Mela, the annual south Asian fair which attracted 130,000 revellers.
The city's liaison committee between ethnic minorities and the police praised West Yorkshire's strategy of high profile patrolling of the Mela, after rumours that the NF or British National Party would attempt to disrupt it. Racist leaflets were handed out at the gates of nearby Hanson high school the week before, but the two-day party in Peel Park proved the most successful yet.
"We've been assured by the police that they will again have more than enough officers on Saturday," said Barry Malik of the liaison committee, which also called for local people not to over-react to attempts at provocation. Eleven NF supporters were convicted of taunting Asians in Oldham three weeks ago, after a planned demonstration degenerated into abusive shouts at shopworkers outside a suburban pub.
The NF's national organiser, Terry Blackham, a 31-year-old former parliamentary election candidate, is on bail after denying charges of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace at the same incident. He has been involved in plans for an NF gathering outside Bradford's central police station, a protest now outlawed by the banning order.
The home secretary agreed to Bradford council's request for the ban to maintain public order in the city, which saw a brief but violent outbreak of violence in April after rumours of a right-wing attack on Asian businesses in the Lidget Green area. Eight cars were burnt and a nurse seriously injured.
Bradford's council for mosques yesterday announced a scheme to use Muslim role models of success to deflect frustrated young Asians from violent over-reaction to everyday racist slights. The group's vice president, Ayub Laher, said "yobbishness and tit-for-tat violence" was a growing problem among the young of all communities.
"We want people who have made a success of their lives to get the message across that violence and deliquency are against the rules of society and Islam," he said.
Sunrise Radio, which has a large Asian audience in Bradford, is holding a phone-in today to encourage people to stay away from attempts at provocation on Saturday. Its chief executive, Usha Parmar, said West Yorkshire police had made it clearthat any NF law-breakers would be dealt with.
A spokeswoman for the police said: "We can reassure people that we have contingencies in place, but we ask people to show restraint and stay calm."
The joint statement by the political parties said: "We hope that the ban on demonstrations serves as this message to any group attempting to cause disorder: you are not welcome here."
