The Hindu : U.K. police botch up anti-terror operation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 17, 2003

International

International

U.K. police botch up anti-terror operation

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JAN. 16. Britain's first major counter-terrorist operation as part of the post-September 11 war on terrorism went tragically wrong after an alleged Al-Qaeda suspect turned on the investigators killing one of them and injuring four others during a police raid on a flat in Manchester on Tuesday in connection with the discovery of ricin — a deadly chemical — in a north London house recently.

The incident has sent shock waves through the political establishment and fuelled the current hysteria over asylum laws as the murder suspect is an Algerian refugee and allegedly a "key player'' in a network believed to be engaged in developing chemical weapons, according to reports.

Two other men arrested during the raid are also Algerian asylum seekers. They include a 23-year-old illegal immigrant who was said to have "disappeared'' after he was booked under Britain's tough anti-terrorism law two years ago. The raid was aimed at tracking him down in connection with the Ricin case but when the police entered the flat they found two other men, one of whom stabbed detective Stephen Oake with a kitchen knife.

Police have not given the names of any of the three men.

Allegations that Al-Qaeda operatives might be masquerading as asylum-seekers prompted calls for a crackdown on refugees with the Tories demanding that all asylum applicants should be locked up while their cases were being considered. The Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith said the asylum system was being subverted by terrorists and insisted on tougher measures.

``The priority for the government must be that no person should be allowed to enter the country if they pose a risk to our security and those that do so should be detained or deported immediately,'' he said. The Shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin, said there was "ample evidence'' that potential terrorists were "getting through'' the asylum system, and even the normally pro-immigrant Liberal Democrats joined calls for a more strict and security-proof asylum regime.

But the Home Secretary David Blunkett called for restraint saying that Britain could not be turned into a "fortress''.

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