logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
40m 41s

Bradford 12: The Asian youth who took on...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

By 1981, Pakistani-born immigrant Tariq Mehmood had endured years of violent racism in Britain. When he heard that gangs of white skinheads – with a history of attacking Asians – were coming to his home in Bradford, Tariq and his neighbours took desperate measures to defend their community. Underpinning their actions was the principle, “self-defence is no offence.” Tariq would end up being arrested, charged with conspiracy to make explosives, and facing life imprisonment. What followed was the landmark legal case of the Bradford 12.

Hand on the Sun, the novel that Tariq wrote in prison over 40 years ago, has been re-released with a new update.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Maryam Maruf and Lina Chang Editor: Munazza Khan

Up next
Feb 9
I bought Macclesfield FC while drunk and it saved my life
Rob Smethurst bought a bankrupt football club while his life was unravelling – then they went on to make football history and save him in the process.Entrepreneur Rob Smethurst never planned to become the owner of a football club. In the grip of alcohol addiction, and on a four-d ... Show More
42m 12s
Feb 2
Colm Tóibín: How an Irish boy with a stammer found his voice
Colm Tóibín is a celebrated Irish writer, but as a child words didn't come easily. Navigating grief as a boy when his father died, he developed a stammer. Instead of talking, Colm watched and listened, collecting stories that wove their way into his novels. He's won a string of a ... Show More
41m 17s
Jan 26
The gay Kenyan boyband star who refused to be defeated
Willis Chimano is one of Kenya’s biggest pop stars. With the boyband Sauti Sol, he’s won a string of awards and even danced with President Barack Obama. But behind the success, Chimano had a secret: being gay in a country where gay sex is criminalised and people who identify as L ... Show More
36m 33s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2020
Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part one
Portland, Oregon, has a reputation as one of the United States’ most liberal and tolerant cities. Since the death of George Floyd, it has been at the forefront of protests and violence as anti-racist demonstrators and far right groups have battled with each other and with the pol ... Show More
26m 28s
Sep 2019
Tommy Robinson: The Fascist Grifter With An Addiction to Being Arrested
tail spinning
1h 29m
Jul 2021
#72 - Stop Asian Hate
<p><strong>Que ce soit dans l’espace public, sur les réseaux sociaux ou dans les médias, le racisme anti-asiatique n’a jamais été aussi visible que durant l’année écoulée, révélé par l’arrivée en Europe de la pandémie de Covid19 début 2020. </strong>Aux Etats-Unis, le mouvement # ... Show More
42m 56s
Jul 2021
England's summer of riots
In the summer of 2001 race riots gripped towns in the north of England. They began in Oldham in late May 2001, spreading to Burnley in June, and Bradford in July. All had their own specific local triggers, but all involved clashes between men of white and of South Asian backgroun ... Show More
12m 35s
Jun 2022
Extreme Violence: Inside the Minds of People Who Hate
With one hate crime committed every hour and multiple mass shootings happening every day in the US, Red Table Talk gathers a special group of leading voices to reveal the roots of hatred and extreme violence. Jeff Schoep, a reformed leader of the biggest neo-Nazi group in America ... Show More
44m 12s
Jul 2020
Bonus: Beyond Minneapolis, #BlackLivesMatter shines a light on global racism and police brutality
Listen to the recorded live discussion on how the #BlackLivesMatter movement is shining a light on global racism and police brutality beyond American cities, from London to JerusalemThe murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, by police in Minneapolis, USA propell ... Show More
1h 10m
Jun 2021
Syria’s decade of conflict: Islamic State’s most wanted
Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the ten years of civil war in her country.This week Chloe Hadjimatheou tells the astonishing story of a group of young men from Raqqa, Syria, who chose to resist the so-called Is ... Show More
27m 10s
Apr 2018
The Turban Bus Dispute
Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his home town of Wolverhampton where a battle raged over the right to wear the turban on the buses in Enoch Powell's constituency at the time he made his Rivers of Blood speech.In 1967 Sikh bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu returns f ... Show More
30m 38s