Javid shares experience of being mugged
LONDON: British home secretary Sajid Javid has revealed that months before he was appointed to the top security post in the Theresa May cabinet, he was mugged outside the London Euston train station.
Javid, whose parents migrated to the UK from Pakistan, has previously spoken of difficult times faced by many immigrant families, but said he was shaken when muggers riding a moped snatched his brand new phone at the station after he took it out to call a taxi.
“It happened in a flash. I was walking out of Euston station and reached for my phone to call a taxi. It was brand new. Before I knew what was happening, it had gone. They just rode up, grabbed it and zoomed off,” Javid told The Sun on Sunday
“I was angry and upset but thought myself lucky not to have been stabbed or beaten up like many other victims who fall prey to these vicious criminals.”
London has seen several instances of mugging in recent weeks by moped riders. In the context of knife crime and mugging in the city, Javid admitted being anxious over his teenage children being out on the streets.
He said: “My eldest child, my daughter, is home from university and a couple of weeks ago went out to celebrate her 19th birthday. She told me she was going to stay out late with friends in London.
“It was a day when I’d heard about a lot more knife crime. I worried that night that she was out there. We want our children to be safe. It will drive me even more to ensure no parent worries about kids out at night.”
Javid, who in April became Britain’s first home secretary of Asian origin, has been slowly unravelling a set of policies that May called “a hostile environment” for illegal migrants. These include policies that affect a large number of Indian professionals.