Author: Reuters
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 3, 2006
Introduction: Operation focused on alleged
training and recruitment camps in Britain, not linked to foiled plane plot:
Police
The police said on Saturday they had arrested
16 men in two separate anti-terrorism operations just three weeks after uncovering
a suspected plot to bring down US-bound airliners over the Atlantic.
Fourteen of the men were held in London in
an operation that a police source said focussed on suspected "training,
recruitment and encouraging others to take part in terrorist activity".
Anti-terrorist police in Manchester arrested
two men early on Saturday and were carrying out three searches but this was
not linked to the London arrests, the police there said.
The BBC said 12 of the London arrests were
made at or near a Chinese restaurant in south London that police in riot gear
raided on Friday night, questioning diners for hours and taking some away
in handcuffs. The police said they were searching a school in East Sussex
on Saturday in connection with the London arrests.
The BBC said the probe may be linked to alleged
"training camps" in Britain, saying there had been reports of militants
getting together for adventure training as a means to develop closer ties.
The arrests came soon after the head of London police's antiterrorist branch,
Peter Clarke, said in a television interview that police were keeping tabs
on thousands of British Muslims who they suspect may be involved in or support
terrorism-higher than previous official estimates.
The police said the 14 men held in south and
east London on Friday night and early Saturday morning were arrested in a
"pre-planned, intelligence-led operation". The men were suspected
of "the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism",
and were being held at a central London police station, the police said.
They said the operation was not related to
the arrests of more than 20 people on August 9 and 10 in connection with an
alleged plot by a group of British Muslims to blow up US-bound airliners using
liquid explosives. Nor were they related to the July 7 attacks last year when
four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in rush-hour attacks
on London transport, they said.
The police said the arrests followed many
months of surveillance and investigation in a joint operation involving the
police anti-terrorist branch and the security service. Searches were being
carded out at houses in south, east and north London, they said.
The BBC said the Chinese restaurant was full
of people, including children, when police arrived on Friday night. The restaurant's
owner, Madi Blyani, told the BBC up to 60 officers entered the restaurant,
which is popular with Muslims.
"They suddenly came inside because they
were suspicious of some of the customers. ... They talked to them (for) more
than one hour, two hours, and they arrested some of them. So it was obviously
surprising for me, my staff, for everyone," he said.
The police could be seen putting personal
items into evidence bags and they removed six cars parked nearby, the BBC
said. Home Secretary John Reid had been kept fully informed about the operation,
a ministry spokeswoman said.
Eleven British Muslims have been charged with
conspiracy to murder and planning acts of terrorism over the suspected plot
to blow up airliners over the Atlantic. Four people are accused of lesser
offences and five others are still being questioned but have not been charged.
