AS Barcelona remembers the first anniversary of the terror attacks, a Scot who was at the centre of the incident on La Rambla has said he is haunted by the carnage of that day.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar was looking for a Barcelona FC shirt for his son Qais, when he heard a grinding noise, followed by a crescendo of screaming.
He told The National: “As I turned round I saw hundreds screaming and running so I ran too.
“Minutes later 14 were dead, 140 injured and the victims came from over 34 countries… I was lucky but the memories of that carnage and the screams of a mother standing next to me who could not find her children will never leave me.”
At the time Anwar said that as a Muslim, he was repulsed at the “barbaric nature of each cowardly attack carried out in the name of Islam”. He said: “These people wished to sow division and despair and want us to close not just our borders but our hearts.
“Sadly one year on I see the irony as the leaders of Spain along with European leaders stand in solidarity with the people of Barcelona against the terrorists who attacked their freedoms. Yet Europe closed its eyes and ears to the Catalan people when their freedoms and democratic institutions were under attack from the Spanish state...
“For me those who
claimed to be on the side of freedom one year ago, but were complicit with their silence when the Spanish police forced their way into
the polling booths on October 1 are hypocrites who insult
the memory of those who died one year ago.”
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