Bury teen shouted 'Islamic State remaining' at detective

The detective constable was put in a chokehold as the teenager shouted “Allahu Akbar”, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Architecture student Muhammad Zakir Arif, 18,  lunged at the male officer as he was questioned on suspicion of being involved in terrorism offences.

He had been arrested a day earlier on February 6 this year when he was stopped travelling in a taxi as a passenger and was found to be in possession of a zombie-style knife and a machete in a rucksack.

He was arrested on Birley Street in Hulme.

Prosecutor Joe Allman said: “Following his arrest and during the assault on the interviewing officer, the defendant made comments associated with radical Islamism.”

Mr Allman told the court that Arif at first appeared calm during his interviewing before asking “can I just say one thing?”

The case was heard at Manchester Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

At this point he suddenly lunged at one of the interviewing detectives shouting “the Islamic State is remaining” in Arabic.

At one point he had the officer in a headlock before he was eventually pulled off him.

Mr Allman said Arif put up a “significant struggle” when arrested as he kicked out at officers and shouted “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “there is no God but Allah”, the court heard, and other words in Arabic.

Arif had said after being arrested: “I would rather die than waste my life in here.

“I only had those in my bag because I like weapons, I wasn’t going to do anything.

“Do you want to know why you’ll all be getting bombed? It’s like kicking a rabid dog with you bombing Iraq.

“After a while, the dog will bite back and that bite will be your bomb.”

Mr Allman told the court that Arif had also refused to give the officers the PIN number for his mobile phone, despite being told it was needed for reasons of national security.

He told the officers: “My wife is uncovered on the phone so you can’t look at her”, but according to Mr Allman, Arif was not in fact married.

Arif eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a bladed article in public, assault, intentional strangulation and two counts of breaching a Section 49 RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) Court Order.

But at the time he had already been on bail for robbery offences.

The first of these was on January 18 2023 when Arif, of Harrington Close, Bury, approached two 15-year-old boys outside the Besses o' th' Barn tram station in Prestwich.

Mr Allman said: “They did not know him, but they felt uneasy as he was staring at them.”

He then approached them at a nearby bus stop before ordering them to empty their pockets.

Arif took cash from one boy and took the second boy’s mobile phone only to tell him “I don’t want it, it’s smashed".

During the second robbery Arif and another teenage boy approached a 17-year-old on Cornwall Drive in Bury.

This time Arif was brandishing a large “Rambo style” knife and ordered the boy to hand over his £125 “glorious gangster” coat and a chain worth between £60 and £70.

All the while the other boy was filming on his phone while Arif, who was wearing a ski mask, ordered his victim to “get on your knees and say sorry".

Videos of the incident were circulated on social media, one of which included music and images which Mr Allman said: “evokes the Islamic State group.”

But he accepted Arif did not appear to have made the video himself.

Arif was arrested on January 23 last year and gave no comment when interviewed by police.

But he was convicted of two counts of robbery and a count of attempted robbery after a trial in the youth court.

Sean Summerfield, defending, said that Arif, who had no previous convictions before the first robberies, had already been in custody for seven months.

He also said that he deserved credit for having pleaded guilty to the second set of offences.

Mr Summerfield told the court that Arif was only 17 during the first set of crimes and still just 18 during the second.

He said: “We are dealing with a young man, a very young man at that, who has struggled with his mental health for some time.”

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But Mr Summerfield accepted that Arif had still not handed over his mobile phone PIN code.

Judge Patrick Field KC said that Arif’s robbery of the young man on Cornell Drive was an “appalling and deplorable incident, whatever the explanation may be".

He also pointed out that the second incident in February this year had included “an assault on an officer in the course of his duty".

Judge Field sentenced Arif to three years detention in a young offenders’ institute.

He also hit him with a restraining order forbidding Arif from coming within 50 metres of or contacting his victim in the second robbery incident for 10 years.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Superintendent Andy Meeks, Head of Investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: “Today’s sentencing is the culmination of months of dedicated work by the investigation team to ensure Muhammad Zakir Arif faced the consequences of his actions.

“Machetes and zombie knives have no place on our streets so we’re pleased that two dangerous weapons have been seized and will be destroyed.

"However, his offending didn’t stop after his arrest and he would go on to repeatedly flout a legal order, refuse to answer questions, and violently attack somebody as they tried to do their job.

“Thankfully the detective has fully recovered and returned to work, having been closely supported by colleagues across the team.

“We welcome the sentence imposed by the judge today.”