TERROR PLOTS FOILED

TOP OFFICER REVEALS 13 POLTS HAVE BEEN STOPPED IN UK SINCE 2013

Many lives may have been saved when the security services foiled 13 terrorism plots up and down the country since 2013. That was the verdict of the nation’s most senior counter terrorism police officer as he launched a national campaign at Manchester town hall to encourage more people to report radical Islamists intent on harm.

MANY lives may have been saved when the security services foiled 13 terrorism plots up and down the country since 2013.

That was the verdict of the nation’s most senior counter terrorism police officer as he launched a national campaign at Manchester town hall to encourage more people to report radical Islamists intent on harm.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley revealed his officers were dealing with 500 live investigations featuring ‘several thousand individuals’ at any one time.

Since 2013, some 13 attacks had been ‘successfully disrupted,’ including a plot by a 14-year-old boy from Blackburn to behead police officers during Anzac Day in Australia. The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was later sentenced to a minimum five years in custody.

Police have not revealed full details of all the 13 foiled plots although it is understood some have their roots in Greater Manchester.

Mr Rowley urged the public to give more information as it emerged, in a sample of the counter terrorism unit’s 100 ‘highest risk’ investigations, that the public had provided help in only a third of them.

“I see scope for even greater levels of cooperation and public contribution. That’s why we want to be more open to help the public help us,” he told a gathering of community leaders at Manchester town hall.

Public help was now even more important as terrorists were increasingly encrypting their communications, he said.

Rusholme’s Coun Akbar Rabnawaz expressed concern about ‘a rise in Islamophobia’ and questioned if would be right for people to call the authorities if they heard a Muslim saying ‘Allahu akbar’ (god is greater). Mr Rowley said someone simply ‘becoming more devout in their faith cannot give rise to suspicion.’

Later, asked by the press how many lives had been saved in the 13 foiled plots, he said: “One individual with a knife could potentially kill several people. People looking to get firearms could potentially kill double figures of people. You are dealing with that range.”

Another foiled plot - although from 2012 so not among the 13 - involved science teacher Jamshed Javeed who defied his parents and wife in Levenshulme in a determined bid to fight ‘holy war’ alongside the so-called Islamic State in Syria.

He was arrested before travelling.