Raid police hunt chemical device

bbc.co.uk

- Saturday, 3 June 2006

Police are hunting for a chemical device after anti-terror officers carried out an armed raid that led to two arrests and a man being shot.

The 23-year-old suspect shot during the terrorism operation in Forest Gate, East London, is recovering in hospital under armed guard. His brother, 20, is being held at Paddington Green police station.

Security sources told the BBC they had had intelligence there was a "viable" chemical device in the house. They believe something harmful and toxic could still be at the property.

According to BBC Home Affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore they do not believe it would be a sophisticated bomb, but a homemade device. The BBC has learned that the suspects are Abdul Kahar, who was shot, and Abdul Koyar, who are both of Bangladeshi origin.

A single shot was fired, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which will continue to investigate over the weekend. One line of inquiry is that there was a struggle with police and a gun went off accidentally, says BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

The raid was not carried out under Operation Kratos, the shoot-to-kill policy, Scotland Yard said.

Some officers wore bio-chemical suits and carried gas masks in the search of the terraced house in Lansdown Road. The go-ahead for the raid came after discussions between MI5, the anti-terrorist branch, and bio-chemical experts from the Health Protection Agency which advises on the potential health risks.

An air exclusion zone was imposed around the scene, banning aircraft from flying below 2,500ft above the site. But local residents were not evacuated, either because the threat of explosions was not deemed serious enough or police did not want to alert the suspects.

Friday's operation was not linked to the London bombings of July 2005, police have said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Met's anti-terror branch, said the operation was planned in response to "specific intelligence".

"Because of the very specific nature of the intelligence we planned an operation that was designed to mitigate any threat to the public either from firearms or from hazardous substances," he said.

He said the purpose of the raid was to prove or disprove intelligence they had received.

Surveillance operation

BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford described it as the most significant anti-terror operation this year.

Mr Kahar was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism as he was being treated at the Royal London hospital.

Officers from M15 had been watching a group of British young people of Bangladeshi origin for weeks, Margaret Gilmore said.

Their e-mails, phone calls and movements were logged and the suspicion was they were planning a terrorist attack in the UK.

Intelligence officers did not link them with any other group of suspects but thought they were acting alone.

She said by Thursday they were convinced there could be a bomb in the East London house.

Roads closed

The search of the premises is expected to take several days. A tent has been set up outside the property, a two-storey screen has been erected around the building and neighbouring roads are closed. Several people in the house at the time of the raid were moved to other premises. They have not been arrested.

One eyewitness said officers smashed a window to gain access

The IPCC said it would use its own investigators to "examine the circumstances surrounding the discharge of a police firearm".

It investigated the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by police at Stockwell Tube station, the day after the failed 21 July bombings.

In the case of Mr Menezes, officers were operating under the shoot-to-kill policy Operation Kratos.

Residents said Forest Gate was a typical east London "mixed" community with a large number of Bengali and Pakistani families, along with a recent influx of Eastern Europeans.

MI5 intelligence points to 'planned UK chemical attack'

'Chemical plot' shooting 'in error' claims relative

24dash.com03/06/2006 - A man shot by anti-terrorist police during a massive raid to smash a suspected chemical plot is recovering in hospital today.

The 23-year-old was hit by a bullet in the shoulder as armed officers descended on a family terraced house in east London in the early hours of yesterday. He was later arrested under the Terrorism Act after being treated for the gunshot wound in the Royal London Hospital, where he is still recovering.

A 20-year-old man, thought to be his brother, was also held in the raid, which involved 250 police officers, MI5 and bio-chemical experts, and is still in custody.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said there had been no developments overnight. The Metropolitan Police's head of anti-terrorism, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said they moved in after "very specific" intelligence pointed to a terrorist threat. Surveillance had been in place for weeks.

DAC Clarke said: "The intelligence was such that it demanded an intensive investigation and response.

"The purpose of the investigation, after ensuring public safety, is to prove or disprove the intelligence that we have received. "This is always difficult, and sometimes the only way to do so is to mount an operation such as that which we carried out."

Detectives believe a plot was being hatched to use a chemical device in the UK.

Neighbours said they believed both the arrested men were British-born Muslims.

An air exclusion zone was in place around the house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, and a painstaking police search may take days. No other residents were evacuated.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission immediately launched an investigation into the shooting which will be overseen by Deborah Glass, the IPCC Commissioner for London and the South East.

Last year the watchdog was tasked with investigating the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by police at Stockwell Tube station.

Detectives do not believe the current suspected plot had any links to the July 7 bombings in London last year.

Police vans moved into the street silently under cover of darkness so that if there were explosives in the house, there would be no time to detonate them.

Officers, some wearing bio-chemical suits and carrying gas masks, then broke a ground floor window to get in to the house.

Friends of the two arrested men who went to see him in the hospital said he had been shot in front of his parents and sisters, some of whom had to be treated for shock. One friend said: "If you were making a bomb factory would you do it in the same house as your mother? He was not armed. He's not a terrorist. He is an innocent man and he didn't deserve to get shot. "He was an ordinary guy working to support his family."

The friends said he worked as a postman and van driver for Royal Mail, had previously worked for Tesco and as a pizza delivery man, and owned a Yamaha superbike.

A 24-year-old relative, who asked not to be named, said: "He went to the gym, he also worked out at home. He's more homely rather than going out. "He loves his motorbike and loves his fitness. If he's a fanatic about anything it's his fitness. "Ever since I've known him he's been religious. He's been religious from a very young age. He is being portrayed as a Westernised person, that is not true. "He was very close to his brother. They lived together. He got him a job in Tesco because he worked there first."

Another friend said both the arrested men had attended Rokeby School in Stratford, east London.

After the September 11 attacks the older brother started taking his religion more seriously, grew a beard and started praying five times a day, he said. "When we were younger he was no angel. But he changed, we all just grew up. He chose to go on the right path.

"He prayed five times a day, he went to the gym every day and other than that he stayed at home. "Every time he spoke he would say peaceful things. He would give advice to everybody. "Out of all our crew he was one of the good ones, working and looking after his family."

Another friend said: "Going into someone's house and shooting them in front of their mum, that's not right is it? "Just because they have got a beard doesn't mean to say you can shoot them."

Prime Minster Tony Blair, who resumed operational control of the Government yesterday after a six-day holiday in Tuscany, was made aware of the raid before it happened and Home Secretary John Reid was kept informed as the raid was underway.

Following the police operation, neighbours described seeing a man wearing a bloodstained T-shirt being carried out of the house.

One neighbour said the family who lived there were "respectable and nice people".

The area was a "mixed community" with a large number of Pakistani and Bengali families who have lived there for some time.

A relative of the man who was shot during the anti-terrorist raid said he believed his relative had done nothing wrong. Shah Miah, 23, who lives streets away from where the major operation was carried out, said his parents had been in contact with the family of the injured man and had been told details of the incident.

Mr Miah said: "All we know is that police started to break into the house and he came running down the stairs and that's when he got shot. He was taken away along with the others. "He's not in any way capable of doing what they say he's done."

By 7am police had reduced the size of their cordon between Green Street and Katherine Road. Only Lansdown Road, the scene of the raid, and Rothsay Road, which has properties overlooking the rear of the raided property, remain closed. Officers in black boiler-suits could be seen entering and leaving the raided Victorian terraced house, some carrying yellow floodlight stands.

A two-storey scaffolding tent covered in white plastic sheeting remains across the front of the house, covering the porch, path and most of the road in front. At least a dozen police officers are manning the cordons at the ends of each of the two streets, while two ambulances and a paramedic fast-response vehicle are parked nearby.

The neighbours of the raided house said today that they "never expected" to be at the centre of a massive police operation. The man and woman, who have two teenage children, said police offered to send them to a hotel yesterday evening "for their safety", but they chose to stay instead at a relative's house further down Lansdown Road.

The woman, who declined to be named, said her neighbours were ordinary people.

She said: "We knew them of course. But only to say hello and goodbye to. This is totally unexpected. It was a shock." She added that she saw a large number of police officers dressed in black in the early hours of yesterday morning, but she didn't see her neighbours outside the house.

At least eight police vans full of officers arrived at the scene today to relieve their colleagues who have been searching the property through the night. Some of the officers have been working for more than 24 hours since the raid took place yesterday morning.

Officers could be seen changing out of their rubber biological and chemical suits and other protective clothing, including gloves and overshoes, in the street outside the house. Some of the officers were carrying cameras and people who entered the house could be signing an entrance and exit log. Others carried portable lights as well as large canvas holdalls used to store their equipment.

A number of officers from London Fire Brigade, and two vehicles, were also at the scene this morning.

Police stopped and questioned a postman briefly before they let him deliver mail to the street, accompanied by a police officer.

Police terror shooting questioned

BBC - 2006/06/04

There are conflicting reports over the shooting of a man during a huge police anti-terrorism raid in east London.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, was hit in the shoulder by a bullet during the raid in Forest Gate on Friday.

His lawyer insisted he was shot by police, but they have not confirmed they fired the shot and one report suggests his brother was responsible.

Mr Kahar and his brother Abul Koyair, who were arrested in the raid, deny involvement in terror activities.

The News of the World, quoting a Whitehall source, claims the man was shot accidentally by his 20-year-old brother, who is being held at Paddington Green police station.

The source said the gun had gone off in a scuffle, and that police officers were "adamant" that they did not pull the trigger.

But solicitor Julian Young, who represents Mr Koyair, said there was "no truth" in reports his client was responsible for the gunshot.

He said Mr Kahar's solicitor had assured him "there is no question of the fact that the police fired the gun".

BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford said there was confusion over the shooting, partly because the only official statement - from the head of the anti-terrorist branch Peter Clarke - did not say police shot the man.

The Metropolitan Police have never said a warning was given - the statement said only that a 23-year-old man had received a gunshot wound.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the incident, has not made an official comment on the raid.

Mr Kahar is expected to be released from hospital on Sunday and taken for questioning.

His solicitor Kate Roxburgh said one of the 250 police officers involved in the raid was responsible for firing the shot.

"He was woken up about four in the morning by screams from downstairs, got out of bed in his pyjamas obviously unarmed, nothing in his hands and hurrying down the stairs."

Her client, whom she said was innocent, was shot "without any warning" as he came down the stairs, she added.

"He wasn't asked to freeze, given any warning and didn't know the people in his house were police officers until after he was shot," she added.

She said Mr Kahar was "lucky still to be alive".

Mr Koyair's solicitor said his client "denies any involvement in the commission, preparation, or instigation of terrorist offences".

After a closed court hearing in central London - at which police were given permission to hold both men until Wednesday - the solicitor said his client would be interviewed by officers again on Sunday.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said Friday's operation was planned in response to "specific intelligence".

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said ministers were being kept informed of the situation but refused to comment on the details.

Security sources told the BBC they were acting on information that there was a "viable" chemical device in the house.

It suggested it was a potentially fatal device that could produce casualty figures in double or even triple figures.

But the operation has angered some locals, prompting a leaflet to be circulated announcing a meeting to discuss the raid.

MI5 fears silent army of 1,200 biding its time in the suburbs

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 04/06/2006) - telegraph.co.uk

The terrorist threat facing Britain has developed into a "covert conspiracy" involving hundreds of men and women living ordinary lives in the nation's suburbs, security sources have revealed.

Unbeknown to their families and friends, they form a silent 1,200-strong "army" of terrorists. They are believed to be involved in at least 20 major plots that they hope will bring death and destruction to Britain.

The scale of the problem facing the security services is underlined by the fact that MI5, which planned Friday's raid in Forest Gate, east London, has only 2,600 staff - and yet is faced with an increasing workload, including organised crime, in addition to the growing threat from international terrorism.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20, the two brothers arrested after the dawn raid may, according to MI5, be typical of other young Asian men who have become disaffected with the Western way of life and have been radicalised by militant Islamists who support a global Jihad.

According to neighbours, the brothers underwent a transformation after the September 11 attacks on America in 2001, adopting beards and more traditional Muslim dress. "Lots of young Muslims these days are getting more religious, especially after 9/11," said one neighbour. "It's nothing to be suspicious about."

Schoolfriends of Abdul Kahar last night recalled him as a typical teenager. "Everyone changes," said one friend, who asked not to be named. "He's now deeply religious and prays five times a day."

The brothers regularly attend two local mosques, al Karam Trust on Katherine Road and another in Plashet Grove.

"They have become active in the area in trying to get people to go to the mosques," said Mohammed Akram, the vice-chairman of the Muslim Alliance of Newham. Abdul Kahar has recently been on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Such was the disbelief that these men could be anything but law-abiding citizens, that friends of Abdul Kahar, who was shot in the shoulder when armed police stormed his house early on Friday, turned up at the Royal London Hospital, where he was being treated, to protest their innocence.

It was an MI5 officer working within the organisation's highly-secretive G6 section - which runs agents for the branch that deals with international terrorism - who revealed that one of his sources had claimed to him that two brothers living at 46, Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, were attempting to build a chemical bomb.

The anonymity of the suspects fitted the profile of a new breed of urban terrorists waging war from Britain's drab suburbs. The brothers, who were born in London, come from a family of Bangladeshi origin. Their father, Abul Kalam, 51, is a former chef and builder who is understood to have retired due to a heart problem and their mother, Alif Jan, is a housewife. Abdul Kahar took an IT course but worked at a local Tesco store before starting with the Royal Mail.

The intelligence obtained by MI5 suggested that there might be an attempt to acquire material via the internet which could be used to develop a nerve gas, capable of killing and injuring thousands of people.

The intelligence, which is believed to have come from an agent close to members of a small, radicalised Muslim community in east London, was of such quality that MI5's assistant director for the G-Branch, which deals with the international terrorist threat to Britain, ordered a full-scale surveillance operation.

MI5 agents began monitoring the brothers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while members of the organisation's technical A-Branch obtained the appropriate Home Office approval to arrange telephone taps, monitor emails and plant a range of bugging devices that would allow agents to monitor the suspects' every move.

G6-section is MI5's most secret and sensitive department and is solely responsible for agent-running for G-Branch. Its officers are responsible for recruiting agents from a wide variety of backgrounds, including the Muslim community.

Ever since the September 11 attacks, the Security Service has been desperate to recruit Muslims, not just as members but, more importantly, as agents who would be prepared to covertly report on the activities of "radicalised Muslims".

In the days before Friday's raid, MI5 agents working alongside officers from Special Branch, began monitoring the activities of the two men. The intelligence they obtained, however, did not result in the national "threat level" being increased from "severe (general)", the third highest level, which suggests that neither the police nor MI5 had any knowledge of the intended target.

But by Thursday police had decided to launch an operation to arrest the two brothers to try - as Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said - to "prove or disprove the intelligence we have received".

A senior Whitehall source said that the absence of a chemical weapon inside the house would not mean that the intelligence was wrong.

"It may well be that nothing is found at the house, it may be that any chemical device has been moved to somewhere else, we will just have to wait and see," he said. "Our action may prove fruitful, and may have prevented an attack against the UK or there may be nothing there."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sean Kenny and Roya Nikkhah.

Angry families threaten legal action against police over anti-terror raid

The Muslim man shot by officers protests his innocence and accuses them of failing to give a warning

Mark Townsend, Anushka Asthana, Antony Barnett and David Smith - Sunday June 4, 2006 The Observer

A young Muslim man shot by police on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist chemical plot last night protested his innocence and alleged that police failed to give warning before opening fire.

Solicitors for Mohammed Abdul Kahar and his brother Abul Koyair, who was also seized in a dawn raid on Friday involving 250 police officers, said they denied any wrongdoing.

A family who live next door to the brothers alleged that they were also arrested and assaulted, leaving one man with a head injury and needing hospital treatment. They are considering legal action against the police.

Kahar was shot in the shoulder during the raid in east London as police reportedly searched for a 'suicide vest' that would pump out poison gas - a claim questioned by MI5 yesterday. As he remained under armed guard in hospital, his solicitor, Kate Roxburgh, described her client's account of the shooting: 'He was woken up about four in the morning by screams from downstairs, got out of bed in his pyjamas obviously unarmed, nothing in his hands and hurrying down the stairs. As he came toward a bend in the stairway, not knowing what was going on downstairs, the police turned the bend up towards him and shot him - and that was without any warning.'

She added: 'He wasn't asked to freeze, given any warning and didn't know the people in his house were police officers until after he was shot. He is lucky still to be alive.'

Julian Young, solicitor for Koyair, said: 'My client denies any involvement in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorist offences and has maintained that position from the start.'

Speaking after a closed court hearing in central London, Young said Koyair was due to be interviewed by officers again this morning. He added that Kahar was expected to be released from hospital around lunchtime today and to be taken to Paddington Green high security police station in west London.

He added: 'The situation is that the district judge has authorised a further period of detention up to Wednesday. If the police have not completed their inquiries by then they must either charge, release on bail, take no further action or apply for a further warrant.'

Kahar was shot as armed officers descended on a family terraced house on Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, in the early hours of Friday. He was later arrested under the Terrorism Act after being treated for the gunshot wound in the Royal London Hospital. Koyair was also held in the raid, which involved police officers, MI5 and biochemical experts.

Yesterday a family detained by police during the raid also denied any involvement in terrorism activity and said it was considering legal action. In a statement, the family, who lived in the terrace adjoining the brothers' house, said they 'would like to make it clear that we are completely innocent and in no way involved in any terrorist activity'.

The family, reportedly four adults and an eight-month-old child, said that police had questioned them for 12 hours before releasing them without charge on Friday afternoon. They added in a statement: 'We would like to express our deep shock and anger at the operation that took place. My family members and I were physically assaulted. I received serious head injuries that required hospital treatment. We are liaising with our legal team on the course of action to take.'

A group representing the family of Jean Charles de Menezes - the innocent Brazilian shot dead by police in the wake of the 7 July terror bombings - waded into the row. Asad Rehman, chairman of the Newham Monitoring Project, an anti-racism organisation, is acting as spokesman for the family, who wish to remain anonymous.

Rehman, who also acts as political adviser to the Respect MP George Galloway and is a vocal critic of the Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair - said that the family was considering legal action on the grounds of 'unlawful entry and assault' and had enlisted the help of Gareth Peirce, the prominent human rights lawyer who has also worked on the de Menezes case.

A source connected to the de Menezes campaign alleged: 'The family were assaulted with facial injuries against a woman, and an eight-month-old boy was dragged out into the street.'

Neighbours also registered their anger towards the police, describing how a younger brother in the family was arrested and 'dragged down the road, put down on the pavement and then plastic sheets were put on him and he was into white overalls'. Others claimed that even the grandmother of the family was led from the home in handcuffs.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed that, in addition to the suspect who was shot, 'Two other people went to hospital. One was a woman suffering shock. The other, a man with a head injury.' He declined to comment further.

As details began to emerge, it seems certain that it began with an original tip-off local informant known to security services as 'an asset' suggesting that the brothers, who were under surveillance, were planning an imminent, biological attack on the British mainland.

Intelligence had suggested it was a potentially fatal device that could produce casualty figures in double or even triple figures.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission immediately launched an investigation into the shooting, which will be overseen by Deborah Glass, the IPCC Commissioner for London and the South East.

Officials admit doubts over chemical plot

Intelligence behind terror raid questioned as proof remains elusive

Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram Dodd - Monday June 5, 2006 - The Guardian

Counter-terrorism officials conceded yesterday that lethal chemical devices they feared had been stored at an east London house raided on Friday may never have existed.

Confidence among officials appeared to be waning as searches at the address continued to yield no evidence of a plot for an attack with cyanide or other chemicals. A man was shot during the raid, adding to pressure on the authorities for answers about the accuracy of the intelligence that led them to send 250 officers to storm the man's family home at dawn.

Officials are not yet prepared to admit the intelligence was wrong. But there is diminishing optimism that it will be shown to wholly or even partially correct. Speaking of the feared chemical devices, one official said: "They might be elsewhere or never existed."

The raid, at 4am on Friday, was launched after MI5 received intelligence from an informant of the existence of a viable chemicial device at the property, which was to be used in an attack in Britain with the potential for substantial loss of life.

During the raid a 23-year-old Muslim man was shot, and he and his brother were arrested on suspicion of terrorism.

Scotland Yard said yesterday that searches at the property would continue for several days. Sources with responsibility for the security of the transport system, one of the most likely targets of a chemical device, say they have not been made aware the searches have produced any trace of a chemical device, either at the address in east London or elsewhere. "So far nothing from the search bears out the intelligence," said one source.

The Guardian has learned that over the weekend police intensified their planning for dealing with community anger if it turns out the intelligence was wrong.

Security and intelligence officials yesterday defended the decision to raid the house: "We have a duty of care to the general public, we can't do [police anti-terrorist] operations by halves," said one official.

A senior police source explained the police's dilemma: "In other crime you can take a risk to firm up the intelligence. The trouble with this new world of terrorism is you don't have the time, you can't firm up the intelligence to the point you like.

"The public may have to get used to this sort of incident, with the police having to be safe rather than sorry."

Anti-terrorism police yesterday began questioning the man shot in the raid, after his release from hospital. His lawyer named him as Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who with his brother Abul Koyair, 20, protest their innocence and deny any link to Islamist extremism.

Mr Koyair's solicitor, Julian Young, denied media reports that his client had any criminal convictions. Lawyers for the men also denied a report that Mr Kahar had been shot by his brother after grappling with an armed police officer for his gun.

Mr Kahar's solicitor, Kate Roxburgh, said the 23-year-old Royal Mail worker had been shot in the upper right hand side of his chest, with the bullet exiting through his shoulder on an upwards trajectory. She said his brother had been standing behind Mr Kahar at the time.

Both solicitors said there had been no struggle before the shot was fired without warning, but Ms Roxburgh said Mr Kahar had grabbed the gun after he was shot fearing it would be fired again, leaving him with a burn to his hand from the hot barrel.

Mounting backlash at British police anti-terror raid

Mon Jun 5, via Yahoo.news

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's latest anti-terrorism raid, in which a man was shot and injured, could lead to a serious dip in public confidence in the country's police and security services, newspapers here say.

Police in London have endured almost a year of harsh criticism, including accusations of a cover-up, since armed officers shot dead an unarmed Brazilian man on a subway train in the mistaken belief he was a suicide bomber.

A number of newspapers seized on an admission by the London's Metropolitan Police Monday that the raid in east London last Friday had so far failed to yield evidence that it was being used as a chemical or biological bomb factory.

The left-of-centre Independent said the high-profile swoop, which involved more than 200 officers, had led to fears among local people about being branded extremists and many Muslim families were now considering leaving Britain.

Others, including right-of-centre dailies, the Daily Telegraph and The Times noted comments by the new leader of the Muslim Council of Britain that trust could break down between the community and the police if nothing is found.

The Times ran a letter from a Yusuf Patel who said he lived in the Forest Gate area where the raid happened.

"Most people I have spoken to believe that these raids are designed to create fear within the Muslim community. If that is the case, it is working," he said. "The sensationalism of the press, coupled with the heavy-handedness of the police and the unwillingness of the community leaders to provide a strong response to the rumour mill will further the alienation of Muslims in the local area," he added.

The right-wing Daily Mail, meanwhile, said the "backlash" could play into the hands of extremist groups keen to capitalise on the perception that the Muslim community was being unfairly targeted in anti-terrorism operations.

It quoted one unnamed security source as saying "the most dangerous thing we have found is aspirin" during the four-day search.

The fears were expressed as the two brothers of Bangladeshi origin who were detained under the Terrorism Act in the dawn raid remained in police custody.

One of them was transferred Sunday from a London hospital where he was being treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder sustained in the raid.

Both vehemently deny any involvement in terrorist-related activities, according to their lawyers.

Scotland Yard has insisted that they were duty-bound to act because of the intelligence.

The raid is being investigated by watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which also conducted probes into the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.

Sir Paul Lever, the former chairman of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, which advises government on national security issues, said not following up suspicions could be "potentially horrendous".

He told BBC television late Monday: "That's the dilemma that the security services and the police find themselves in. They are damned if they do, damned if they don't."

By The Associated Press DEWSBURY, England (AP) - torontosun.com

Police in Britain are refusing to comment on reports by the British Broadcasting Corp. that the arrests of a 21-year-old man and a 16-year-old youth as terror suspects were connected to an alleged terrorist plot in Canada.

Police were conducting searches at five different locations following the arrests, authorities said Wednesday.

Seventeen people were arrested in southern Ontario last Friday on charges of plotting to attack targets in the province.

The 21-year-old man, identified only as a resident of Bradford, northern England, was arrested Tuesday night at Manchester airport, West Yorkshire Police said. Officers searched three houses in Bradford in connection with that arrest.

Two other homes in Dewsbury, near Bradford, were also searched by police after the 16-year-old was arrested Wednesday afternoon.

Located in the heart of Dewsbury's Indian Muslim community, the homes are less than a minute walk from the Markaz mosque, which is the largest Deobandi mosque in Europe.

After the Wednesday arrest, people gathered on the streets to watch police as they continued their search of the houses.

Area residents said one of the houses being searched belongs to a well-known and well-respected family. After the raid by police, some people became angry and wanted to organize a march in support of the teenager, but a local preacher told them to allow the police to continue their work and to go home, area resident Hanifa Darwan said.

Mohammed Afzal, who liaises with local police, said the crowd was upset because it was the preacher's home that had been raided. He said the arrested teenager lives in the same home as the preacher, and that the religious leader had not been arrested but that he did leave with police to calm the tense situation.

A lawyer for one of the Canadian suspects arrested June 2 said prosecutors have accused some of them of plotting to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper unless Canada withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.

Muslims slam UK terror raid

www.gulf-daily-news.com - LONDON: Britain's Muslim community voiced unease yesterday after a huge anti-terror raid on a London house, in which one suspect was shot, ended with two Muslim brothers being released without charge.

Local Labour councillor Murad Qureshi called for a total overhaul of Scotland Yard, which has come under huge criticism for the tactics used during the raid, which involved around 250 police officers.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was injured in the dawn swoop, and 20-year-old Abul Koyair were freed yesterday after being held for questioning for a week as officers scoured their house looking for some kind of chemical weapon, which was not found.

Qureshi, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), the police supervisory body in the British capital, told the BBC: "Unfortunately I think there was a series of mistakes which I think the Met should learn from." Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, echoed the call for lessons to be learned and regretted the impact the police action has had, particularly on young Muslims.

"The nature of last week's raid and the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Abdul Kahar had created considerable unease in the Muslim community, particularly among the younger generation," he said.

"This decision to release the two brothers without charge confirms their innocence and we hope that the appropriate lessons will be learned by all involved in this tragic incident."

He added that it was not a matter of apportioning blame, but of trying to ensure that Muslims and the police work together to defeat terrorism.

But Damian Hockney, also a councillor and member of the MBA, defended the police action.

Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said police needed to acknowledge they had made errors in the Forest Gate raid to prevent extremist groups exploiting resentment in the Muslim community. "Some recognition that mistakes have been made would go some way towards the damage done," he said. "Even at the height of the IRA bombing campaign in the 1970s we didn't see the police storming into innocent Irish people's homes on this kind of scale." Police said they would repair damage to the house caused by the search.

Lawyers for the released men say they deny any involvement in terrorism.