SCOTLAND YARD apologised last night for the “hurt” caused to two brothers who were arrested during an armed anti-terror raid in which one of them was shot in the chest.

Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman said that the Metropolitan Police had no choice but to mount a robust operation 12 days ago in the early hours of the morning.

He was speaking several hours after the two brothers gave a dramatic and graphic account of the raid on their home in Forest Gate, East London.

One of the men arrested in the raid told of the moment that he went to confront what he thought were burglars in his house and was shot in the chest by police.

Abul Kahar Kalam, 23, sat next to his brother Abul Koyair Kalam, 20, who was also arrested, and described the events of 12 days ago that took place in the darkness of his terraced home in East London.

Looking bewildered and often fighting back tears Mr Kahar said that it was 4am when he heard his brother screaming and rushed from his bedroom into the upstairs hall.

As the brothers started down the stairs Mr Kahar said that he was shot in the chest and thrown back against a wall.

With blood running down his chest, he said, police officers hit him with their guns and punched him in the face before dragging him down the stairs by his feet.

In a quiet and often faltering voice he told a press conference at the Emmanuel Church, near to his home, that at no point did the officers identify themselves. He said that he thought at first that he had been shot by armed robbers.

Mr Kahar said: “I heard screams that I’ve never heard before from my brother. I opened my door and it was all dark. I assumed a robbery was happening. As I took the first step down the stairs, I saw an orange spark and a big bang.”

He said that the shot came from about 2ft away. “I looked at the right of my chest and saw blood was coming down and I saw a hole in my chest. I knew I had been shot.

“I said, ‘Please, I can’t breathe’, and they just kicked me in the face and kept saying ‘Shut the f*** up’. I thought they were going to shoot me again or my brother.

“I feel ashamed for asking them to spare my life. I still didn’t know they were police. One of the officers grabbed my left foot and dragged me down the stairs, my head was banging on the stairs.”

Mr Kahar, who works for the Royal Mail and as a supervisor for Tesco, was taken to hospital and says that the police put pressure on medical staff to release him so that they could start their interrogation.

During interviews at the high-security Paddington Green police station, he was asked if he belonged to extremist organisations, including the Ku Klux Klan.

“I didn’t know whether to laugh or to take it seriously,” Mr Kahar said. At no point, he added, did officers tell him why he was there.

“They just kept saying, ‘Tell us where it is in your house’, but I said, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’.”

Mr Kahar, whose right arm was in a sling, said that he had not been able to sleep properly since his arrest, but insisted that he did not blame all police officers for his ordeal, just those responsible for the raid, and that he wanted them to be brought to justice.

Mr Koyair also described the raid and said that before his arrest he had applied to become a community support officer but that now his family did not want him to do it.

The raid took place after an intelligence tip-off suggested that the house was being used to build a chemical weapon, but after a week-long search failed to produce any evidence the men were released without charge.

The shooting on June 2 is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Mr Hayman said that the Metropolitan Police had listened to the comments and concerns of the two men and understood that they had caused “disruption and inconvenience” to many in the area, especially those in the two houses raided.

He said: “I apologise for the hurt that we may have caused.

The main objective of this operation was to pursue specific intelligence . . . on that basis we had no choice but to mount a robust operation, which required a fast armed response.”

ABUL KAHAR KALAM, 23

‘As I took the first step down the stairs . . . I saw an orange spark and a big bang’

‘I thought they were going to shoot me again or my brother. I said “Please, I can’t breathe” and they just kicked me in the face’

‘I feel ashamed for asking them to spare my life’

‘It has turned my life upside down.

I have flashbacks. I can’t sleep with the light off’

ABUL KOYAIR KALAM, 20

‘It was like a dream at first, but I realised it was not a dream and my own brother had been shot for no reason. They tried to murder my brother’

‘They grabbed me away from my brother and dragged me down the stairs and were hitting me and telling me to shut up’

‘They bagged my hands and feet and told me they were going to press charges for terrorism’

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• An officer and a gentle woman
• Dame Helen Mirren is worthy of the Epidaurus
• Foods that can help to prevent swine flu