Scotland Yard has apologised 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 eleven 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.
Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, a Muslim, sitting next to his brother Abul Koyair, who was also arrested in the raid, told of the terrifying moment when he went to confront what he thought were burglars and ended up slumped on the floor having been shot at close range by a police officer.
Looking bewildered, and often having to fight back tears, he described the raid for the first time. He said it was 4am when he heard his brother screaming and he rushed out into the hall.
As they started down the stairs of their terraced home in Forest Gate, east London he said he was shot in the chest and thrown back against the wall.
With blood running down his chest he claims the police 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 the media gathered at the Emmanuel Church, near to his home, that at no point did the police identify themselves and he thought he had been shot by armed robbers.
His brother said that he had applied to become a Community Support Officer but now his family did not want him to do it.
The raid took place after an intelligence tip-off suggesting that the house was being used to create some kind of chemical weapon, but after a week-long search failed to produce any evidence the two brothers were released without charge.
Both men, sitting with their legal representatives, said that they had not receieved any sort of apology from the authorities and wanted whoever sanctioned the raid to be brought to justice.
The brothers, who are both shaven headed with long beards, said they were not thinking about compensation at this stage but their legal representative did not rule it out.
With his right arm in a sling Mr Kahar said that he had not been able to sleep properly since the incident which he described in detail. "I heard screams that I have never heard before from my younger 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 and turned to look lower down as soon as I turned round I saw an orange spark and a big bang." He said the shot came from about two feet away.
"At that time I flew on to the wall and I slipped down. 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 was thinking ‘Was it an armed robbery?’ I put my hand over my wound. I saw two of them walking towards me and objects were flying about my face. I put my hand up I didn’t know what it was but I now know it was a gun that hit my face.
"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 sat there and heard them saying ‘secure the room’. 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 outside and only then realised it was a police raid when he saw all the emergency vehicles.
He was taken to hospital and says that the police put pressure on the medical staff to release him so they could start their interrogation.
When he was taken to the high security Paddington Green police station he was asked if he belonged to any extreme organisations, including the Ku Klux Klan.
"I didn’t know whether to laugh or to take it seriously," he said.
At no point, he said, 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'."
He said that he was not a violent person and believed Jihad meant to strive and help people.
Mr Kahar said that he didn’t blame all police officers for his ordeal, just those responsible for the raid, and he wanted them brought to justice.
Mr Koyair, 20, said he was woken up by the sound of shattering glass and started shouting to warn everyone. He said his brother was slightly in front of him when he heard a loud bang and saw a big flash before everything went quiet.
"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.
"After that I saw the officers hitting my brother."
Fighting back tears he added: "They dragged me down the stairs and were hitting me and telling me to shut the f*** up." He was handcuffed and told to kneel on the ground with three armed officers surrounding him.
"I saw my mum coming out of the house and she was screaming ‘my son, my son’. The police said they were going to press charges against me for terrorism."
Mr Koyair applied to become a community officer after seeing an advert, but has now changed his mind.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission are investigating the shooting.
Mr Hayman, head of Specialist Operations, said that he 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, which led us to that address. While we have not found evidence of what we were looking for at the house, the intelligence received did raise serious concerns for public safety.
"On that basis we had no choice but to mount a robust operation, which required a fast armed response.
"As we saw from Madrid and with the experience of the tragic murder of a police officer in Manchester in 2003 police now have to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, the public and those inside premises when carrying out anti-terrorism operations. It was these considerations that influenced the tactics on 2nd June."
He said that while the IPCC are investigating the shooting he could not comment further but asked anyone with any concerns about the operation to contact the IPCC.
He added: "It is communities that will defeat terrorism. The police service is committed to work tirelessly with all communities to secure the safety of us all."
Rob Beckley, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ spokesman on communities and anti-terrorism, said that police would address the "anxieties" displayed by communities.
He said: "Many in communities, especially Muslim communities, do understand the dilemmas we face and have given us a large benefit of the doubt. But they do want to be reassured that we won’t overreact and we will listen to concerns."
