British police arrest fourth terror suspect in Blackburn

Nothing new on Finnish connections of group

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Police in the county of Lancashire in the north of England have made a fourth arrest in Blackburn early Tuesday morning. A 25-year-old man is suspected of having worked together with three other young men, aged 21, 22, and 23, who were arrested earlier.
     Two of those arrested were stopped at Manchester Airport nearly two weeks ago, where they were to have boarded a flight to Finland. British police have been in Finland investigating contacts that the men may have had with radical groups in the Nordic region.
     Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that Finns have no reason to worry over the matter.
     The three are suspected of having made threats against the lives of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Prime Minister Tony Blair on a radical Islamic website.
     
According to reports in the British media, the men were found to be in possession of material urging people to commit terrorist attacks. However, police have so far found no indication that the men had any concrete plans to perpetrate any acts of terror.
     On Tuesday morning, police searched the flat of the man that they most recently arrested in the Whalley Range district of Blackburn. The flat is located just a block away from the homes of those who were previously arrested.
     Whalley Range is is a prominantly Asian neighbourhood, with many residents who are second and third-generation immigrants. A large proportion of Blackburn’s approximately 100,000 residents are Muslim.
     The three who were arrested previously are of Pakistani heritage, while the man who was most recently arrested has a native English background who converted to Islam a few years ago. Neighbours characterised him as a nervous and seemingly unstable person, who ran around in the streets late at night.
     
The man reportedly moved into his neighbourhood a few years ago, after which he is believed to have become radicalised. He divorced his wife, and started keeping company with young Pakistanis.
     A woman living nearby, who said that her name is Shahnez, said that the apparent leading figure in the group was a large-sized 23-year-old with a long beard.
     “I don’t believe that he was a terrorist. I think that he just wanted to act like one”, Shahnez says.
      Abbas Aftab, who watched the police operation on the street on Tuesday morning, said that he knew the youngest of the group.
     “I knew him in primary school. He was a pleasant and polite guy. I was really surprised by the arrests”, Aftab says.
     The neighbours appear to be surprised at the arrests, even though there have been arrests before in Blackburn over suspected terrorism.
     “I have lived here for nearly 20 years, and there have never been any problems”, says a woman of Pakistani heritage, who did not give her name.
     She characterised the area as pleasant and peaceful, where the children have been able to move about without worry.
     The neighbours also had no explanation for why two of the group were going to Finland. None of those interviewed could think of anything that would connect the suspects with Finland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  British police investigating possible Finnish connections of terror suspects (25.8.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat