Turkey’s coup fallout hits UK

British police are investigating a series of attacks and death threats against alleged opponents of Turkey’s president in the wake of last weekend’s failed coup.

The threats were made during a disturbance last weekend at the Mevlana Rumi Mosque in Edmonton, north London, which is run by the Hizmet movement of the exiled Turkish cleric Fathullah Gulen.

The building was stormed by men calling the worshippers ‘‘terrorists’’ and threatening to ‘‘torch’’ the place of worship.

Gulen, who has about 1500 supporters in Britain, has been accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being responsible for this month’s coup in Turkey.

Police are also investigating a series of Facebook posts identifying the locations of a Hizmet nursery, a school and businesses.

The posts call for the outlets to be reported to the Turkish government.

Death threats in the form of text messages have also been sent to a number of Hizmet followers.

‘‘Following a concerted effort by the Turkish government to demonise the Hizmet movement in and outside Turkey, there have been systematic attacks on Hizmetaffiliated individuals, organisations and sympathisers in Europe,’’ said Ozcan Keles, chairman of the Dialogue Society, a Hizmet-inspired charity in London.

Fiyaz Mughal, the founding director of Islamophobia monitoring group Tell Mama, said his organisation had received claims that Turkish intelligence operatives connected to the embassy in London were gathering information on Hizmet supporters.

‘‘There seems to be intelligencegathering through the large Turkish diaspora community here in the UK,’’ he said.

‘‘The UK should not be a battleground for international issues that Hizmet members have no control over and who are just living their lives peacefully as Brits.’’

The revelation comes as ministers faced calls to suspend arms sales to Turkey. Last year, Britain exported military equipment worth £204 million, including assault rifles and ammunition, helicopter parts and components for surface-to-air missiles.

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said weapons sales to Turkey should be halted in the wake of the crackdown.

Britain issued 297 licences for arms exports to Turkey, records published by the business department show.

The human rights situation was already declining, with ‘‘militaryled brutality against the Kurdish population and increasing crackdowns on freedom of expression,’’ Brake said.

‘‘The UK government is aware of this, yet instead of taking a cautious approach to selling weapons to what is rapidly becoming an authoritarian state, it has in fact ramped up arms sales to Turkey,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m calling on the government to suspend all arms sales to Turkey until it has conducted a full review of the human rights situation.’’