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U.K. Muslims under watch

Hasan Suroor

Possible link to terrorism: Scotland Yard

LONDON: Activities of "thousands'' of British Muslims are being watched by security and intelligence agencies for their possible link to terrorism, Scotland Yard has said indicating for the first time the scale of surveillance of Britain's nearly two-million strong Muslim community since 9/11 and the July 7, 2005 London bombings.

The revelation was made by Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch, in an interview for a BBC programme Al-Qaeda: Time to Talk to be telecast on Sunday. Portraying a grim picture of the security threat, he said: "What we've learnt since 9/11 is that the threat is not something that's simply coming from overseas into the United Kingdom. What we've learnt and what we've seen all too graphically and all too murderously is that we have a threat which is being generated here within the United Kingdom.''

Asked how many Muslims were under scrutiny, Mr. Clarke initially declined to get into the "numbers game'' but then said: "All I can say is that our knowledge is increasing and certainly in terms of broad description, the numbers of people who we have to be interested in are into the thousands. That includes a whole range of people not just attackers, but the people who might be tempted to support or encourage or to assist [terrorists].''

Mr. Clarke's remarks came against the background of the involvement of British Muslims of Pakistani origin in the July 7 London bombings. Those arrested last month in connection with the foiled alleged airline plot were also Muslims.

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