New Delhi, December 1: Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who has gained sudden attention after the London Bridge incident in which he along with his team nabbed and shot dead terror convict Usman Khan on Friday, has ties with India. Basu's roots can be traced back to Kolkata where his father, Pankaj Kumar Basu, originally hailed from. In 1961, Pankaj moved to the United Kingdom and married a nurse. Islamic State Claims Responsibility for London Terror Attack.

Neil was born and brought up in Stafford. Although he had a comfortable childhood, Basu and his brother become victims of racism while growing up. "My parents were a mixed-race couple so holding hands in the streets of north Wales they would be stoned by members of the community. Between them, doctor and nurse, they gave 90 years to the National Health Service, one of the UK’s greatest institution,” Basu said to Telegraph.

Neil Basu told Member of Parliaments on the Home Affairs Select Committee that he had spent his life "dealing with racism", reported BBC. He was responding to controversial proposal cross-party group of MPs, which had described Islamophobia as "a type of racism".

“I’ve spent 51 years dealing with racism and the vast amount of racism I’ve had in my life has been the perception that I might be Muslim – and I’m not. So, I look at that and I feel kind of personally conflicted about saying I can’t accept this definition, but professionally, for me, it’s about community confidence," Basu told the committee.

In the recent attack, Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist, is suspected to be a man who stabbed two people. Khan, who was wearing a hoax bomb vest was shot dead at the scene by Neil Basu and his team.

London Bridge was one of the locations targeted by the ISIS0claimed terror attack in June 2017, where 11 people died as terrorists went on a stabbing spree. Recently, the United Kingdom had downgraded its terror level from severe to "substantial", which means terror threats is "likely" rather than "highly likely" in the country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 01, 2019 10:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).