London: Police arrest 6 Muslims in raids to stop "major terrorist attack"

(Daily Mail) A former police community support officer was arrested yesterday over an alleged plot to carry out a major terrorist attack, possibly during the Olympics.

Jahangir Alom, 26, who spent two years working for the Metropolitan Police, was among six people detained over an alleged plan to cause an atrocity in the UK.

The former 'Blunkett bobby' and his two younger brothers were arrested at 4am at their family home half a mile from the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London.

A white Muslim convert, Richard Dart, 29, who once worked as a BBC security guard, was among three other suspects taken into custody elsewhere.

In April last year Dart, using the name Salahuddin Al Britani, appeared in an internet video uploaded by a Muslim group, which vowed to disrupt the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

A woman aged 30 and man of 21 were arrested at separate homes in West London yesterday, on suspicion of being part of the terrorist plot.

Last night the suspects' alleged targets were unclear, as was how it is alleged they planned to strike. But security sources described the arrests 'as very significant' and counter-terrorism chiefs are convinced they have thwarted a major attack.

Yesterday's developments followed months of surveillance and a recent, worrying increase in intelligence 'chatter', prompting fears of an attack to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics.

It is not thought that the suspects were intending to target Games' venues or spectators. But detectives fear Islamic radicals will try to maximise publicity with an attack – anywhere in Britain – during the next two months.

All three brothers are British nationals from a large Bangladeshi family and attended the local Rokerby High School.

Their father, Sheikh Alkas Ali, a chef, is understood to have returned to Bangladesh, where he and his wife were both born.

The arrested men's brother-in-law Salim Ahmed said they had once been acquaintances of radical preacher Anjem Choudary. Jahangir also appeared in a Channel 4 documentary, My Brother The Islamist, in which he drove several men to a meeting at a mosque in Leeds.

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