UK calls threat of Islamic terrorism ‘serious’
A Canada-based think tank has reported that the United Kingdom has raised its threat level from Islamist terrorism to “severe” following two violent incidents in Liverpool and Essex last month. Two more threats are expected in the United Kingdom in the future, the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) said, however, so far no Islamic group has come forward to accept responsibility for the attacks.
British Security Minister Damien Hinds suspected the incident may have been the result of online radicalization – the latest aspect of Islamic terrorism to threaten Europe.
According to the IFFRAS report, Hinds disclosed that “over 30 late-stage plots have been disrupted by the security services in the past few years.”
On 15 November a suicide bomber detonated himself with an explosive device near a maternity hospital in Liverpool.
According to MI5, a British domestic counter-intelligence agency, the Islamic terrorist threat to the country is real.
“Terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, including al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have both the intent and the ability to conduct direct attacks against the West. The UK is a high priority target for Islamic extremists and they are against our pose a significant threat to the country and to our interests and citizens abroad. Despite the current main focus on terrorism emanating from Syria and Iraq, the threat of terrorism also emanates from other parts of the Middle East and regions such as the North, East and West Indies. West Africa, South and South-East Asia,” the website said.
British Home Secretary Priti Patel said Britain’s terror threat level had been raised from sufficient to severe, meaning another attack was “highly probable”.
On 15 October, Sir David Ames, a Conservative Member of Parliament, was stabbed to death outside his constituency surgery in Essex. He was stabbed several times when he was returning for surgery.
He died due to injuries.
According to IFFRAS, the priority of British counter-terrorism agencies is to identify all people in the UK who have been radicalized in recent months or years.
“There are several thousand people in the UK who support violent extremism or are engaged in Islamic extremist activities. Some British nationals travel abroad for training with extremist groups and return to the UK to plan attacks, but within Terrorist threat from the UK is on the rise from radicalized individuals by individuals and online content,” MI5 said.
According to the House of Commons report on “Terrorism in Great Britain: Statistics”, the number of terrorism-related arrests in the UK since 2001 peaked with 447 arrests in 2017-18. In 2020-21, out of 166 terrorism-related arrests, 27 per cent resulted in charges, and of these, 82 per cent were terrorism-related charges.
(with inputs from ANI)
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