IT IS ONE of the most deprived areas in Britain. Now, thanks to warfare between rival Banghladeshi gangs, areas of Tower Hamlets are increasingly taking on a look more familiar on the streets of Northern Ireland.

The scars of territorial graffiti and the marks of petrol bombs are the background to a rising tide of daily violence and organised crime, transforming whole districts into ethnic battlegrounds in danger of escalating out of control.

Chief Superintendent Mark Simmons, commander in Tower Hamlets, one of the capital’s 32 boroughs, with an impoverished population of 190,000, told The Times: “The situation has got so serious that we have formed a special unit, codenamed Operation Ashford, to deal solely with gang violence.

“The six-strong outfit is likely to become a model for dealing with the Asian gang culture escalating here and in other parts of London. Its work is based on intelligence gathered by men in and out of uniform mixing with the Bangladeshi community.”

The Times was invited to join an Operation Ashford team. During one car patrol the unit was called to quell two riots by rival Bangladeshi gangs. Some members are so young that they are known to police as “pre-gang”, although they profess loyalty to one of the 26 Bangladeshi gangs operating in Tower Hamlets.

At one violent fracas, the fighting had begun after a schoolgirl addressed one teenage gang member as a “boy” rather than as a “man”, the description required by the strict code of respect which governs daily life in an area pinpointed by government statistics as one of the most deprived in the UK.

Kim Harwick, 40, the manager of a hairdressing salon near the fighting, said: “This happens almost every day. Brutal fighting is commonplace between these thugs, who often go for each other with huge kitchen knives, petrol bombs and machetes, or even drive stolen cars at each other in a 21st century version of jousting.

“That this sort of behaviour can take place so routinely is a disgrace that makes life here intolerable for any ordinary citizen. The only surprise is that the police came quicker today than is normal — maybe because you are with them.”

Armed with nothing more than truncheons and CS gas, the two Operation Ashford officers were heavily outnumbered and subject to racial abuse. One was singled out as a “racist scum” and repeatedly accused by some of the young gang members of subjecting them to rough treatment.

The schoolgirl at the centre of the flare-up, rescued distraught but relatively unscathed from the melée, was more grateful.

Some of the gang members wear distinctive haircuts that highlight their loyalties. One style favoured by one of the biggest gangs — estimated at 250 strong — consists of three stripes shaved into the side of the head, an allusion to the Bengal tiger.

Dr Sean Carey, author of a 60-page study of Bangladeshi gangs commissioned by the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, said: “Unlike middle-class kids, these people have no cars or flashy clothes with which to identify their masculinity: so they do it via toughness and physicality.”

Although officers attached to Operation Ashford do not carry guns, they wear body armour and conduct their operations along military lines from a cramped office in Bethnal Green police station.

On the wall is a map labelled “Disorder Hot Spots”. Marked in orange are the most violent frontlines between gangs with such names as Stepney Thug Passion, The Cannon Street Road Posse and The Brick Lane Massive.On the door is a sobering warning: “All cops are targets.”

Islamic fundamentalist organisations play a part in the violent allegiances. In the office is an intelligence document on one such extreme organisation, which specialises in recruiting from the younger gang members. Police believe it then turns them against specific targets, such as the white prostitutes who ply for business in Spitalfields, in parts a squalid district whose links with the red-light trade stretch back centuries. “These fundamentalists do not like the girls because they claim they are against the Koran,” Superintendent Simmons said. “They harass them, but are met with remarks like ‘Jack the Ripper didn’t get us and neither will you bastards’.”

On the walls are 40 mugshots of the most wanted young gang members, all of which are meticulously memorised by the five constables and one sergeant.

A formidable collection of impounded weaponry includes a Samurai sword, various knives, often stolen from local butchers, and Ulster-style bound baseball bats.

The second-generation Bangladeshis who have become so addicted to violence have not, as yet, turned to guns.

“Ironically, most of these gangs started defensively to protect Bangladeshis against white racists,” Superintendent Simmons said. “But most of those have now left, leaving them to fight out the ugliest type of turf wars against each other.”

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