UK Police Release One Man Arrested in Terror Raids

London: One of the 12 people arrested on suspicion of planning a major terror attack in Britain has been released without charge and was being questioned by immigration authorities, authorities said.
The unidentified 18 year old is now in the custody of the UK Border Agency, a police spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy. She said the other 11 suspects arrested in a series of raids in northern England three days ago are still in custody and being questioned.
British officials have not released details about the reported terror plot, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it “very big”. Britain’s media have suggested that an attack could have been timed to coincide with the Easter holiday and that pictures of supermarkets were uncovered by police hunting for evidence in the northern cities of Liverpool and Manchester.
Most of those in custody were Pakistanis living in Britain on student visas, and the arrests have roiled relations between Pakistan and Britain. News of the alleged plot also has raised questions about the strength of the UK’s immigration system.
Opposition leaders are calling for a crackdown on the student visa system, which allows tens of thousands of foreigners into Britain each year.

British PM tells Pakistan, Do more on terror

London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday told Pakistan to do more to wipe out terrorism breeding inside the South Asian country. His comments came hours after the UK police arrested 12 people, including 11 Pakistanis, on suspicion of having links with al Qaeda terrorist network in a series of raids in northwest England.
“We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan,” Brown said. “That is an important issue for us to follow through and that’s why I will be talking to President (Asif Ali) Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future.”
The arrest came hastily after UK top anti-terror chief, Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, unintentionally revealed the details of the operation.
Quick stepped down over the gaffe, which saw him photographed as he arrived at Brown’s Downing Street office on Wednesday with a secret document about the suspected plot clearly visible.
Photographs of the document, made public on Thursday, included locations of the raids and showed the operation was “AQ-driven,” meaning al Qaeda.
The British PM further defended the decision to move the raids forward to Wednesday evening once it became clear that the police swoop risked being compromised.
“We have been investigating a major terrorist plot and we have got to act early. Our first concern is always the safety of the public. It is right that we took the urgent action that we did over the course of yesterday,” he said.
“We are dealing with a very big terrorist plot. We have been following it for some time. There were a number of people who are suspected of it who have been arrested. That police operation was successful.”
Pakistan envoy shocked
Pakistan’s high commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told the BBC that he was “shocked” and “surprised” at the alleged plot’s link to his country.
Hasan claimed that Pakistan was working hard tackle terrorism within its borders. He further noted that many of those arrested were reportedly in the UK on student visas, adding issuing these was Britain’s responsibility.
“If they (British authorities) allow us to make inquiries first, if they ask us to scrutinise those who are seeking visas, we can help them,” he said.
The raids took place in the cities of Manchester and Liverpool — including at John Moores University — as well as in the nearby town of Clitheroe.
According to the Times, there were plans to attack a nightclub and shopping centre complex in Manchester.
Britain has been on high security alert ever since the July 2005 attacks in London, which killed 56 people including four suicide bombers, and failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow in June 2007.
The threat remains on its second highest level, severe. MI5 chief Jonathan Evans said in January that al Qaeda leaders based in Pakistan still intended to mount attacks on Britain — and had the capacity to do so.