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Salik Uddin Choudhury

Age: 64

Sex: male

Date: 5 Nov 2002

Place: Birchdale Road, East Ham, East London

Salik Choudhury was stabbed on his doorstep on Sunday 3 November 2002.

He was stabbed in the stomach at 5.30pm and was then taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where he later died at 7.38pm.

When he was murdered he had been with his 7-year-old daughter and a nephew who witnessed it. Eight of his relatives had also been in the house at the time.

A black man, aged between 16 and 20 and of slim build, was seen running away towards Sherrard Road afterwards. The black man was said to have been wearing a black crew-neck jumper, dark-coloured trousers and shoes and had a white gold hoop earring in his right ear. He was also seen to have been carrying an unknown object across his chest. It was noted that he was not wearing a coat, despite the cold weather.

The black man had earlier been refused entry into Salik Choudhury's home by Salik Choudhury's daughter which had led to an argument.

Salik Choudhury was described as an Islamic leader and had received a threatening letter eight months earlier in March 2011 in connection with his role as retired secretary at the Forest Gate Mosque in east London. It was also revealed that other committee members, including the chairman and general secretary, had also received threatening letters. The letters were written in Bengali and claimed that the price of £6,000 or £7,000 had been put on their heads and called for them to leave the mosque.

The mosque had been subject to a number of incidents since September 2001 when there was an argument between some of the worshippers and the main body of the congregation. The incidents included a man being beaten up in the mosque, a car having its window smashed and tyres slashed and the threatening letters. The police said that they had also been called out to remove what was described as a gang of Bengali upstarts who were trying to take over the mosque's committee group. They were said to have been made up of locals as well as people from outside the area specifically to take over the committee group.

Following Salik Choudhury's murder, worshipers at the mosque said that they were too afraid to talk about it, saying, 'We are all too frightened to speak, as the people who did this could be listening. Women are too frightened to let their husbands go to the mosque', and referring to the 'enemy within'.

Salik Choudhury was from Bangladesh having arrived in the UK in 1966. He had helped to start the mosque in 1990 and it was attended every Friday by about 3,000 people. He had six children, three boys and three girls.

A 21-year-old man was arrested at the time of the murder on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and in May 2003 it was noted that four men were on police bail over the murder, but no one was ever convicted for his murder.


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