UK: Anti-terror raids lead to 12 Bangladeshi suspects being held

Ward councillor Mohammed-Sarul Islam said there had been some trouble in recent months with young local people promoting radical views at local mosques.

Photo: Lindsey Parnaby/Newsteam

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Guardian | UK
By Steven Morris | December 21, 2010

Arrests in Cardiff, London, Stoke and Birmingham as counter-terrorism detectives act to prevent alleged plot

Five men in Cardiff were among 12 arrested yesterday by counter-terrorism detectives acting to prevent an alleged plot to attack multiple targets in the UK.

Three of the suspects were detained early yesterday morning in Riverside in Cardiff, an area close to the Millennium Stadium with a large Bangladeshi community. Two others were arrested in Ely, a largely white working-class area.

Councillors, who were told of the arrests, said police had indicated that the men seized were British nationals of Bangladeshi descent. The men are believed to be aged between 23 and 28.


The other arrests were made in London, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham.

In Riverside, Cardiff police attention focused on a seven-bedroom Victorian house, understood to be occupied by a middle-aged couple who run a take-away restaurant, and their two sons. It is not clear whether any family members were among those arrested.

Officers who were carrying out a search of the property also seized a Mercedes estate car.

Neighbour Marc Davies, 26, said: "I was driving to work when I saw police all suited up – it looked like they were wearing chemical suits."

"There were police everywhere, there were vans parked up on the side of the road and it looked all go.

"I was absolutely shocked, this is a normal part of Cardiff."

Next door neighbour, Avtar Singh, said: "I'm very surprised … They are in their 50s and run a restaurant. I know them to say hello to in the street. They've lived here for around six or seven years.

"I was fast asleep when the police arrived. I woke up at 7am and there were all flashing lights outside."

Greg Maciaj, the other next door neighbour, said he had done some building work for the couple at their restaurant. "They are lovely people, decent people, and very friendly," he said.

Ward councillor Mohammed-Sarul Islam said there had been some trouble in recent months with young local people promoting radical views at local mosques. There had also been some trouble around the time of the general election in May, he said, when some election posters had been vandalised, but there was no violence.

Islam said the community would have no sympathy for anyone with extreme Islamist views: "This is a peaceful community and we are shocked that there seem to be idiots like this," he added. Islam said he had been told the men were all British nationals.

Another councillor Ramesh Patel said he had been told by police that the majority" of those arrested were from the Bangladeshi community.

Neighbours said a police raid also took place at a flat above a takeaway restaurant in Ely, two miles from the house in Neville Street. A young couple in their 20s or early 30s live there, according to neighbours.

Eyewitnesses did not see any arrests being made at the address, which also occurred in the early hours.

One shopkeeper, who runs a convenience store across the road from the flat said he was just lifting his shutters at around 5.30am when he saw 20 people outside the door of the flat.

They knocked on the door but broke it down when there was no answer. In Cardiff city centre there were fears that crowded shopping centres and bars could have been a terrorist target. Some shopkeepers said there had been rumours ahead of the arrests that the city could be under threat.

Nick Beckett, general manager of the Queens Arcade shopping centre, said : "It has been very worrying and especially when you heard about the arrests today."He said he had not heard anything directly from the police.

A highly-placed source in the police operation said that the alleged plot was targeting shopping areas in the West Midlands and important sites in London. There has been no indication that locations in Cardiff were an intended target. South Wales police refused to comment saying it was an anti-terrorist operation mounted by the West Midlands force.

Forensic searches in Stoke-on-Trent were centred on Grove Street, Cobridge, where more than a dozen police vehicles had gathered.

Officers were present inside three end-terrace properties and a group of four uniformed police were seen entering a fourth house. Police activity was also reported to be under way in the Tunstall and Shelton areas of the city.



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