Around 650,000 people have signed petitions demanding justice for drowned Bury schoolgirl Shukri Abdi.
Shukri, 12, died while swimming in the River Irwell last June in circumstances that are being investigated by an ongoing inquest.
There are two main petitions circulating which have been boosted by the current outrage over racism and police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
One of them has been signed by over 382,000 people at the time of writing, and the other has been signed by 260,000 people.
The latter petition demands that the authorities independently investigate both the Local Education Authority of Bury, and Lancashire and Broad Oak Sports College (now Hazel Wood High School) for potential negligence and a potential breach of duty of care towards pupils in light of accusations of failure to address incidents of bullying.
It also demanded that Greater Manchester Police investigate the incident with full transparency, and that the force is itself investigated in light of its initial conclusion into the death of Shukri that there were no suspicious circumstances.
Both petitions were started 11 months ago before the current inquest began.
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The inquest itself was adjourned in March to a later date yet be confirmed because all the evidence in the case wasn’t heard.
During the five day inquest in Manchester evidence was heard that Shukri was threatened and coerced into the River Irwell despite the fact that she couldn’t swim.
Shukri’s mother, Zamzam, cried as Coronor Joanne Kearsley apologised to her for the delay and when asked to comment Zamzam told the court that she would wait “until she gets justice.”
Attiq Malik, the family’s solicitor, told 5Pillars at the time: “We had envisioned that the inquest would only be one week and then the Coroner would make the decision but as often happens in legal proceedings matters have cropped up which mean that the evidence couldn’t be concluded…
“So unfortunately we haven’t finished yet, we are still on this journey and all I can ask everyone to do is pray for us that we get justice; that we get the truth and insha’ Allah in the next few weeks we should get a date for the evidence to be concluded. And then there will be a further short delay while the Coroner considers everything and makes the decision.”
In the light of the coronavirus crisis, no date has yet been set for the inquest to be concluded.
