The BBC quoted Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the seniormost South Asian on the force, as saying that the unit will be set up along similar lines to Operation Trident - which targets serious crime within the black community - as a response to the increase in violence within Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan communities.
According to The Guardian, 'the number of South Asian murder victims has almost quadrupled in the past decade from 10 in 1993 to 38 last year, compared with 32% for the general population, while the kidnap rate has more than doubled from 90 to 228 from 1998 to 2003, accounting for 20% of the Met's total kidnap figure last year and racking up 114 kidnaps so far this year. In some cases, victims are being seized in India or Pakistan and ransoms demanded from relatives in the UK.
A 'growing number of young Asians are becoming embroiled in drug dealing, guns and gangs. Minor disputes are escalating with young south Asian gang members resorting to violence, including stabbings and shootings,' it said.
According to Ghaffur, drug crime in Asian communities has increased 41% in the past five years, compared with the overall figure of 37% for London. Pakistan is the source of 27% of the heroin found in London, with a rising number of Asian addicts and drug related crime.
The dearth of jobs and academic opportunities and a widening chasm between older Asians with traditional values and the younger generation were the main factors behind this upsurge in crime, he believed.
At 900,000, South Asians make up 12 per cent of London's population.
Over the past year in London, there were 2,270 Asians arrested, 81 firearm crimes, 72 firearms seized and 442 knives recovered from the South Asian community. The number of South Asians indulging in economic crime like money laundering and benefit fraud is also on the rise.
"This is not about segregating crime by race, it's about using what we have learned through Trident to nip it in the bud and actively reducing crime where victims and perpetrators come from the same communities," he was quoted as saying. After creating a special south Asian intelligence cell in the next eight weeks, Ghaffur will co-ordinate with south Asian community leaders as well as law enforcement agencies in the "source" countries-- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
With an initial budget of around £5m and 80 staff, the new unit will endeavour to stem the increasing crime rate in these communities in the UK.