Bradford Riots: 10 Years On
7 July 2011, 09:28 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
10 years on from the Bradford Riots and the community at the centre of it say they just want to 'move on.'
The 2001 riots were the worst seen in the UK in the last 40 years.
More than 1,000 youths battled with police in the Manningham area of the city, starting on July 7.
Around 300 officers were injured, as reinforcements were brought in from a range of forces, and damage estimates were put at more than #10 million.
The riots provoked an unprecedented police inquiry which resulted in 200 jail sentences totalling 604 years.
West Yorkshire Police said Operation Wheel - which involved the painstaking identification and subsequent tracing of those involved - was a model of how to investigate such a huge incident.
But some campaigners said the lengthy jail sentences handed down in a long series of court cases at Bradford Crown Court were excessive.
Community groups have said they want to mark the anniversary with events which stress how the city, and Manningham in particular, have moved on.
The biggest of these will involve 2,000 children gathering in Lister Park.
The youngsters are aiming to break a world record for the number of people singing 'If You're Happy and You Know It' and clapping their hands.
Organisers Positive Bradford said they thought is was an appropriate way to contrast the negative events of 10 years ago with encouraging developments in the city in 2011 and show solidarity within the community..
Local Labour councillor Shabir Hussain said he thought the area had changed enormously since the riots:
'We don't need to mark this anniversary because we have moved on so much.
'People here want to forget and look to the future. We want to move on.
'Those responsible have been punished and that is right.
'Now we have a Manningham that is a wonderful place to live.
'I've lived in Manningham since 1968 and I wouldn't live anywhere else.'
The rioting involved mainly Asian youths and followed similar disturbances earlier in 2001 in Oldham and Burnley.
A report published shortly after the disturbances by Sir Herman Ouseley highlighted shocking segregation and isolation of cultural groups with Bradford at the time.
