August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

LONDON, Aug 23: Britain’s most senior Muslim policeman has launched a discrimination claim against his employers, London’s Metropolitan Police, the force said on Friday.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur is claiming $2.2 million, saying he was discriminated against on grounds of race, religion and age, the BBC reported.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We understand that AC Ghaffur has initiated proceedings in an employment tribunal,” adding he could not comment further.

Ghaffur, who was born in Uganda and joined the police in 1974, is leading security operations for the London 2012 Olympics and is one of several officers ranked third most senior in the Metropolitan Police, also known as the Met.

He is a high-profile figure who has campaigned for better treatment of ethnic minority officers and led probes into issues including organised crime in Britain’s South Asian communities and serious fraud.

The BBC said Ghaffur had named Sir Ian Blair, the controversial head of the Met and Britain’s most senior policeman, as one of two respondents in his claim, which is expected to be judged by the tribunal in the next month.

Blair faced heavy criticism over his handling of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian shot dead by Met officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber two weeks after attacks in London which killed 52 people in 2005.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog said last year Blair had tried to block its probe into the case, while Menezes’s family and Britain’s two main opposition political parties said he should quit.

The Met was fined 175,000 pounds for health and safety breaches over the killing.—AFP