Bradford 12

Bradford, Leeds.

On 11 July 1981 members of the United Black Youth League (UBYL), a militant splinter group of the Asian Youth Movement Bradford founded in 1981, made petrol bombs in response to the rumour of a planned fascist march in Bradford. A crate of thirty-eight petrol bombs was found on waste ground near Horton Hall in Bradford, and twelve South Asian youths, aged 17–25, were arrested.  Despite the petrol bombs never being used or any of the defendants being found in possession of them, all twelve faced life imprisonment. The first of the twelve defendants to be arrested were Tarlochan Gata-Aura and Tariq Mehmood Ali in house raids on 30 July 1981. The remaining defendants were arrested within the next 24 hours. During this trial, the defendants faced several injustices. They were barred access to solicitors and visitations from family or friends. Defendants who were released on bail had to report to the prison every day and were placed under house arrest from 10pm to 7am the next morning. They were banned from all political activity. Under intimidation from the investigating team, Tarlochan Gata-Aura took sole responsibility for making all thirty-eight petrol bombs, although he reiterated that the petrol bombs were a last resort for self-defence.

The July 11th Action Committee was organized after the arrests in support of the Bradford 12, as they became known. It worked alongside several groups including the Asian Youth Movement, Indian Workers’ Association, Socialist Workers’ Party and Gay Liberation Front. Support groups were established throughout the UK. The committee released a statement suggesting that Gata-Aura and Ali were specifically targeted due to their political activities as members of the United Black Youth League. Gata-Aura and Ali had been under police surveillance for over two years. This trial was therefore an opportunity to silence two leading members of a rapidly growing resistance movement. The committee organized marches in support of the Bradford 12. The politicization of the bail conditions and intimidation shown towards the youth defendants resulted in activists using the slogan ‘Gagged’ in marches. Over two thousand protesters took to the streets in Bradford chanting this slogan during the trial's initial stages.

After months of this harsh treatment, the Bradford 12 trial finally began on 26 April 1982 at Leeds Crown Court. At this trial, the youths argued they were forced into self-defence following a rumoured skinhead march. From recent examples such as the Deptford 13, where thirteen Black children were murdered in a firebomb attack during a birthday celebration, and the stabbing of Satnam Singh Gill, the defendants argued that death could be a consequence of the march. Yet Superintended Sidebottom (second-in-command of the investigation) claimed he was proud of the race relations in his city, and another police officer claimed he had never heard of racial attacks occurring anywhere in the country. The judge reprimanded them for insensitivity. This swung the jurors' sentiments in favour of the defendants.

On 16 June 1982 all the defendants were acquitted on the grounds that the petrol bombs were indeed a last resort of self-defence. The Self-Defence is No Offence campaign reiterated South Asian communities’ right to self-defence in the absence of police protection. It highlighted the failures of the West Yorkshire police force and their sympathies with the far-right organization, the National Front.