British police questioned two brothers and searched their East London home Saturday, a day after police shot one of the men during the country’s largest anti-terrorism raid since the bombing attacks last summer on the London public transit system. Authorities remained tight-lipped about the operation, which involved about 250 officers, including some in chemical-protective suits. Local media reported that police feared that a homemade chemical bomb might have been sneaked out of the house. Police searched a house in East London for a second day, seeking evidence to bolster what they called “very specific” intelligence of a terror plot. Police have not released the suspects’ names but said that one was arrested on “suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.” The other man was held on unspecified charges under Britain’s Terrorism Act.Relatives of the brothers issued a statement expressing their “deep shock and anger” at the police operation and insisting that the family was “completely innocent and in no way involved in any terrorist activity.” The statement did not include the names of the detained men. Police issued a statement Friday saying that “very specific” intelligence, perhaps involving “hazardous substances,” had led them to believe a terrorist attack was imminent. The raid was conducted about a month before the first anniversary of the July 7, 2005, attack on three London subway trains and a public bus that killed 52 passengers along with four bombers. But as of Saturday evening, police were largely silent on what, if anything, their search had turned up. The Times of London reported Saturday that the police were searching for a “chemical vest,” designed to release deadly chemicals in a suicide attack. The Reuters news agency quoted an unidentified police source as saying they were hunting for a “viable chemical device.” Police, who refused to comment on any news reports, have also given few details of Friday’s shooting, except to note that it was being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission — standard procedure in any police shooting. Police created a furor last July when they killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician shot seven times in the head by officers who mistook him for a terrorism suspect. Residents of the Forest Gate neighborhood in east London said the raid was another blow to the image of Muslims in London. Many interviewed in the working-class area, where people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian descent live alongside other Britons in modest row houses, said they supported efforts to root out Islamic radicals but feared police may have shot an innocent man because he was Muslim. “We’re shocked that they shot someone. We’re shocked that they found nothing,” said Rita Walia, 29, a mother of three. “We don’t know what to think.” “If they are calling it a bomb factory, they should have found something by now,” said Asif Raja, 22, standing on a corner near the house. “If they do, I will be the first to give them respect. But Muslims are worried because they think, ‘The next time it could be me they shoot.’ ” Several neighbors said the two brothers were British-born men of Bangladeshi origin and that the older one worked for the British postal service and the other in a local grocery store. Neighbors said the older brother had recently embraced his Muslim religion much more passionately and had switched from Western dress to the traditional shalwar kameez , loose-fitting, knee-length cotton shirts and baggy pants. They said he also opened a gym in his basement, and young people from the neighborhood came to work out. “They were family people, working-class people,” Raja said. “They were not asking me to strap up and put on a bomb.” The police search, he said, “only makes it tougher for Muslims.”

Source: The Washington Post

Tags: London Police, Terrorism, Chemical Bomb

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