THE brutal murder of Mr Tariq Javed was, I believe, racial and needs to be condemned.

Murder is unacceptable is any society and particularly murder on the basis of colour. This incident has shocked the whole community, white and black alike.

Since the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which led to changes in the Race Relations Act 1976, it has become paramount, for the sake of a tolerant society, to implement the recommendations of Lord McPherson's Inquiry.

That inquiry found that institutional racism played a part in the flawed investigation, by the Metropolitan Police, of the murder of Stephen, most notably in the failure of officers to recognise the murder as a racially-motivated crime. The inquiry also accepted that institutional racism exists in other police forces and the Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable has already accepted the same. Bury Division is part of that force and I welcome Bury Police reportedly treating Mr Javed's murder as racially-motivated.

The Asian community has expressed its outrage on the streets of Bury in a peaceful manner. This should not be an end to it. If we want to avoid a repeat of such incidents in future, a thorough investigation must be carried out. To me, this crime seems to have been a well-planned act of barbarism, committed without thought for its far-reaching implications for society as a whole, and for Bury's community in particular.

One of the McPherson Inquiry's recommendations was that the police should co-operate closely with local agencies and communities to encourage people to report racist incidents and to ensure that information about racist incidents is shared widely.

Bury Police have initially consulted only "appropriate" people from the Asian community in order to calm the situation. They should now meet all those who want to express concerns and not just a select few. Any differences between the ethnic minority groups should not stop the police reaching out to all the community.

There are two "watchdogs" for the taxi drivers: the police, and the local authority who examine their vehicles and listen to the complaints from passengers. But there is no authority which can save taxi drivers from robbers, thugs and those who verbally abuse them. The local authority is quick to take their badges but unable to take any action if they are murdered. The whole burden is shifted on to the police.

The Bury local authority has published its Community Safety Strategy document, and the prioritising of racial harassment is one of its objectives.

Taxi drivers, through their licence, come directly under the local authority and it is, therefore, the authority's responsibility to ensure the safety of the drivers, just as it does the passengers.

I urge the police and the local authority to take the following steps to prevent an escalation of racially-motivated incidents:

Strengthen the multi-agency Racial Harassment Forum, established by the local authority, which currently lacks a proper community involvement;

Develop a better understanding of local problems;

Identify effective ways of preventing incidents of racial crime, perhaps by enhancing the work of the CID; and

Better education about the nature and form of racism in Britain today.

NASRULLAH KHAN,

former director,

Bury Racial Equality Council.