EDL rallies ‘target of a Muslim terror plot’
SENIOR officers are rethinking how English Defence League marches will be policed after discovering they could be targets for bombing campaigns by Muslim extremists.
An Improvised Explosive Device similar to those used against British troops in Afghanistan was found in a car after police stopped two Asian men on June 30.
Two guns and ammunition were also seized.
Counter-terrorism detectives are trying to establish if there was an intent to attack supporters of the anti-Islamic protest group who raised tensions on an EDL march through Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, the same day.
Police say the car was stopped because it had no insurance and the two occupants were not held at that point.
However, after the arms cache was found, seven men aged between 22 and 43 were arrested in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire last week.
Documents in the vehicle allegedly contained anti-EDL propaganda. Police sources say EDL marches are attracting a large number of antiFascists and Muslim extremists.
They are also concerned about reports suggesting the EDL has forged links with Sikh extremists fol- lowing the rape of a Sikh woman by a Muslim.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kenny Bell, of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “As soon as the items were discovered in the impounded vehicle, our priority was to protect the public by pursuing and arresting those we believed to be involved.”
In a separate investigation, Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers yesterday arrested a 22-year-old woman in Hackney, east London, on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
It follows six arrests on Thursday over the suspected terror plot.
British Muslim convert Richard Dart, 29, who changed his name to Salahuddin al-Britani, is believed to have been one of three people detained in Ealing, west London, and was arrested in the street.
He appeared in a BBC Three documentary, My Brother The Islamist, made by his stepbrother Robb Leech last year. It described how Dart, originally from Weymouth, Dorset, had been converted by controversial cleric Anjem Choudary.
In the documentary he spoke of his support for jihad and Sharia law.
Also detained in Ealing, at separate home addresses, were a 21-year-old man and a woman of 30.
Three men aged 18, 24 and 26, believed to be members of the same Bangladeshi family, were arrested in a raid on their home just over a mile from the Olympic site in Stratford, east London. The six, who include a former Police Community Support Officer, remain in custody at a south-east London police station on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Warrants of further detention were granted at Westminster magistrates
court. The alleged plot involved Islamist extremists with potential targets in Britain but was not linked to the Olympics, it is understood.
The threat to the UK from international terrorism is currently rated substantial – the third highest of
five levels.