Terror suspects all linked to NHS
Tuesday, 3 July 2007, 14:02 GMT
(BBC News)Police made two arrests at Royal Alexandra Hospital in
Paisley
Eight people arrested in connection with failed car bombings in
Glasgow and London all have links with the National Health Service,
the BBC has learned.
Seven are believed to be doctors or medical students, while one
formerly worked as a laboratory technician.
Australian media have identified a man arrested at Brisbane airport
as Dr Mohammed Haneef, 27.
Two men have been arrested in Blackburn under terror laws but
police have not confirmed a link with the car bombs.
Dr Haneef, who formerly worked in Cheshire, was detained while
trying to board a plane to India. A second doctor is also being
interviewed in Australia.
Seven doctors or medical students have been arrested in England,
Scotland and Australia in connection with the attacks. All worked
in NHS hospitals.
Marwah Dana Asha, 27, who was arrested on the M6, is thought to
have worked as a lab technician at an NHS hospital in
Shrewsbury.
She was arrested with her husband, Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, who worked
at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust.
Two men arrested in Scotland on Monday over the attack at Glasgow
airport and one held at the scene of the airport attack have been
handed over to the Metropolitan Police.
Six of the eight people arrested are now being held at London's
Paddington Green police station.
Secondary searches are being carried out on passengers at Heathrow
Terminal 4 in response to a suspect bag.
Controlled explosions have been carried out on a car at a Glasgow
mosque and at a station in Hammersmith, west London.
British Transport Police said explosives experts performed a
controlled explosion on three fire extinguishers left on a pavement
outside Hammersmith Tube station, which serves the District and
Piccadilly lines.
Three explosions were also carried out on the car in Glasgow as a
precaution, but Strathclyde Police said there had been "absolutely
no specific information" regarding a threat.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Australian police had
acted on information from the UK authorities.
The man detained at Brisbane airport was an Indian national who had
been trying to return to India with a one-way ticket, he
added.
ARRESTS
TIMELINE
30 June Two men arrested at Glasgow airport after burning car
driven into doors of main terminal
30 June A 26-year-old-man, Dr Mohammed Asha, and a 27-year-old
woman arrested on the M6 near Sandbach, Cheshire
1 July A 26-year-old man arrested near Liverpool's Lime Street
station
1 July A 28-year-old man and a 25-year-old man arrested in
Paisley
2 July A 27-year-old male doctor is detained in Australia, and a
second doctor is questioned
Australian authorities said police had executed search warrants at
the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport, eastern Queensland - where
the detained doctor worked as a registrar - and at other
locations.
They said the detained man and the doctor being interviewed by
police had both been based in Liverpool before coming to work in
Australia.
Dr Haneef is known to have previously worked at Halton Hospital in
Runcorn, Cheshire.
Speaking at a Muslim Council of Britain press conference, Dr
Muhammed Abdul Bari said those who sought to kill or maim innocent
people were "enemies of all of Muslims and non-Muslims".
He reiterated the government's view that it was "unacceptable to
hold any one faith group or any community as being somehow
collectively responsible for the actions of the few".
Meanwhile, Iraqi Bilal Abdullah - a doctor arrested at Glasgow
airport on Saturday - has been taken from Scotland to Paddington
Green police station in London.
Another man detained at Glasgow airport along with Dr Abdullah
suffered severe burns and remains in a critical condition under
armed police guard at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley -
where Dr Abdullah was employed as a locum.
A forensic team was at the scene of the Glasgow Airport
attack
Dr Asha, who was brought up in Jordan and worked as a junior doctor
at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in
Telford, was arrested on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday
night.
Two men, aged 28 and 25, were arrested on Sunday at residences of
the Royal Alexandra Hospital and another man, aged 26, was arrested
in Liverpool on Sunday.
Dr Abdullah is said to have qualified in Baghdad in 2004 and first
registered as a doctor in the UK in 2006.
Detectives are trying to trace the movements of the green Jeep
Cherokee - registration L808 RDT - loaded with gas cylinders, which
crashed into the doors of Glasgow airport's main terminal and burst
into flames on Saturday afternoon.
The attempted attack came a day after two Mercedes containing
petrol, gas cylinders and nails were found outside a nightclub in
London's Haymarket and in a nearby street.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said 19 locations had been searched by
police investigating the attacks.
These included properties in Houston, near Glasgow; Merseyside and
two addresses in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
Police are also searching Dr Asha's office at the University
Hospital of North Staffordshire, in Stoke-on-Trent.
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