Pakistani among Four held in London under anti-terror laws
By M Salim Khan - Pakistan Times Foreign Correspondent / Monitoring Desk

LONDON (UK): British police arrested four people including a Pakistani in London under anti-terrorism laws but said no link had been established with the underground and bus bombings.

“Three people have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act at Heathrow Airport but it is not known at this stage whether those arrests are linked to this inquiry or not,” a senior London police spokesman, Commander Brian Paddick, told a news conference.

“Those people are still being detained.”

Paddick warned against linking the suspects to the attacks; “I am told that it is inappropriate and pure speculation at this stage to be drawing any direct linkages with the attacks in London, and at this stage we are not in a position to give any further information.”

The Pakistani

Meanwhile, a Pakistani has been detained at Stansted Airport outside London, allegedly with a map of the underground system and the three bombed train stations circled, reports TIME magazine quoting a US intelligence source.

A British official confirmed that a Pakistani had been arrested but said that there was no known connection between the event at Stansted and the bombings.

They were the first terrorist-related arrests to be announced since the deadliest peacetime attack in Britain was perpetrated Thursday, killing about 50 people and injuring some 700.

But “people are arrested under the prevention of terrorism act very, very frequently. It happens on a weekly basis and it’s happened again at this time,” said Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the London Transport Police.

The Britishers

Britain’s Press Association said the men were three British nationals who had been detained as they arrived from abroad, but it quoted sources as saying they were not being linked to the bombings.

Police said they had received valuable information from the public, who had flooded a tip-off line with 1,700 calls.

The Probe

Meanwhile, British investigators are looking into whether Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda’s top operative in Iraq, may have helped supply explosives for the London bombers.

Meanwhile, A new group of Al-Qaeda-linked extremists has got a foothold in Somalia, an anarchaic Horn of Africa nation that has been wracked by anarchy since 1991, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Saturday.

The ‘new Jihad’ that is run from the bullet-charred capital Mogadishu and consists of members trained in Afghanistan, is blamed for the kidnapping of foreign aid workers and threatens to push the country deeper into anarchy, the ICG said in a new report released here.

“The threat of jihadi terrorism in and from Somalia is real,” the report said. “Since 2003, Somalia has witnessed the rise of a new, ruthless independent jihadi network with links to Al-Qaeda,” the report said.

“Ultimately, the threat of jihadi terrorism from Somalia can only be addressed through the restoration of stable, legitimate and functional government,” the report added, describing that group as a “a new, ruthless and independent network with links to Al-Qaeda.”

Recap

In the past, the United States and several western governments have suggested that that Somalia, a failed nation that has been in anarchy since 1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, is a breeding ground for terrorists.

“But attempts by the new Somali leadership and its regional allies to exploit this threat for short-term political gain risk plunging the country into even greater crisis,” the report said.

US officials are actively investigating terrorist sleeper cells in the United States, in the aftermath of last week’s deadly London transit bombings, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Sunday.

Over the past years “we’ve been successful in actually making cases against sleeper cells in northern Virginia (in the Washington, DC area) and other parts of the country out in the far west,” Chertoff said, speaking on CBS television’s ‘Face the Nation’ programme.

“The lesson of things like (the terror attacks in) London and Madrid is you don’t wait until the cell becomes operational. Because if you wait until the fuse is lit, you’re waiting too long,” he said.

US officials “are very active and aggressive in pursuing these cells, even when we just have them training or lying in wait,” said Chertoff.

“We’ve seen these cells and we’re continuing to conduct active investigations of other cells,” he added.

Mosques in London, Auckland attacked

Meanwhile, following the London blasts, which killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds of others, unknown miscreants overnight attacked religious places in Auckland and London however no fatalities was reported.

The attackers after attacking Mosques in Auckland, New Zealand, left a message on its walls that it was reply of London blasts. Windows of the four mosques in Ponsonby, Mt Roskill, Otahuhu and Ranui were also smashed on Saturday night across Auckland.

Members of Auckland’s Muslim community highly resented the string of attacks on their places of worship.

The police has started investigation after attacks on 4 mosques across the Auckland region last night. Javed Khan of the Federation of Islamic Associations termed the attacks as clear the vandalism is a result of the terror attacks in Britain.

The Mosque in Otahuhu was hit on Thursday night as well, soon after the London bombings, but police did not come around until the following afternoon, he said “I was asleep out the back of the Ponson by mosque when the attack happened, said Farhaz Rehman,” he added.

Prime Minister Helen Clark strongly condemned the attacks on mosques saying that Muslim community like all New Zealand’s communities is overwhelmingly a law-abiding and peaceful community.

Call for Tolerance

The Prime Minister called for tolerance and strictly directed to beef up the security at mosques around Auckaland Farouk Mohammed of the Otahuhu mosque says he is gutted and feeling very hurt. He puts the cost of repairing the damage at around $6,000.

He says that is in addition to the $4,000 expense of repairing windows broken in a similar attack on Meanwhile the politicians also strongly condemned the attacks on four Muslim mosques in Auckland. National Party leader Don Brash has called the attacks in Auckland an appalling act of intolerance, adding there is no place for revenge crime in New Zealand.

Similarly in another attack that happened in northwest England some unknown people Set on fire one mosque Shahjalal which is a part of Islamic centre in Birkenhead however no casualties were occurred, police said.

The door of the Mosque burned however police refused to comment that a petrol bomb was used in the attack. Police said they were hunting two white men in their early 20s seen in the area just before the incident. The mosque was sealed for a forensic search and police were trawling closed circuit television tapes.

Perpetrators enemies of Humanity: Pakistan

Condemning the incident of explosions in London, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said perpetrators of deadly London blasts were enemies of humanity who wanted to push the world into another crisis.

Talking to reporters, he reiterated Pakistan's strong condemnation of the terrorist acts.

The whole Pakistani nation shares the grief of the the British people, the Minister said, adding that the horrendous attacks targeted innocent people irrespective of colour or creed.

Pakistan strongly condemns all forms of terrorism and the world has appreciated its key role in the fight against the menace, Sheikh Rashid said.

The entire nation supports President Pervez Musharraf's policies and resolve to stamp out terrorism, he added.

India Reax

Meanwhile, expressing deep shock over the attacks on the Islamic and Sikh worship places in UK, India today expressed hope that the perpetrators of these attacks would be apprehended expeditiously besides making every effort to maintain peace and religious harmony in that country.

“We have seen reports of attacks on Islamic places of worship in the wake of the events of July 7 in the UK. Such shocking attacks go against the spirit of pluralism and religious freedom which the UK upholds” official spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson said, “We would hope that the perpetrators of these attacks will be expeditiously apprehended and every effort be made for the maintenance of peace and religious harmony in the UK.”

Continuing, the statement said the Indian government is deeply shocked at reports of attacks on two places of Sikh worship in the UK.

“Such attacks are an affront not only to the great Sikh religion but to entire humanity. The Sikh community in the UK has carved out a highly respected place for itself in the British society through its industriousness and commitment”, it added. They have enriched the political landscape and contributed significantly to economic activity, the statement observed.

“We would appeal to the British government to take all necessary steps to apprehend the perpetrators of these attacks and protect the Sikh community against any further expressions of racial tension”, maintained the statement.

Forensic Experts hunt for Bombers

Meanwhile, prising apart crumpled subway trains, poring over reels of close-circuit video, carting away the roof of a shredded double-decker bus, British forensic police were on a determined hunt Sunday for the London terror bombers.

Dressed in blue overalls, foam pads tied to their knees, they crept forward with eyes glued to the ground, dipping every few steps to pick up the tiniest scraps that might furnish a clue.

Behind the detectives, sheets of white tarpaulin hemmed in the zone around the bus explosion, the only one of four crime scenes to be visible: three of the four blasts that killed at least 49 people Thursday were detonated in the London Underground system deep beneath street level.

British police, with decades of experience tracking Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombers, were poring over everything from the entire top of the bus carted away Saturday for deeper investigation and the tiniest splinters that will help them recreate the explosions.

Thousands of hours of closed circuit, video recordings are also under examination. Detectives issued an urgent appeal to the public for any photographs, video footage or mobile phone images taken in the aftermath of the London bombings.●