UK faces ‘severe’ terror threat, says Counter terror commander

LONDON: Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, from the UK Counter Terrorism Policing Network, has said that the UK faces the second highest level of terror threat - “severe” - which means that a Paris style terror attack on the UK soil is “highly likely”.
In an interview with The News at the launch of the second national Counter Terrorism Awareness Week here on Monday, Neil Basu said the national threat level remains at the same place since 2014 but the police services are “worried that the people might become complacent” therefore it was important the citizens cooperated more with the police. He said that increasing the threat level to “imminent” is not under consideration at this point as there are no reports of an imminent attack.
He reminded the public that they have a key role in helping to prevent and protect the UK from the threat of terrorism.
Neil Basu said that extremists have become sophisticated and this was seen during attack on the “European mainland”. He said the security forces were concerned about the “lone actors being radicalised who take inspiration online and may not be part of any group necessarily”. He said that UK security forces were prepared to tackle all kind of threats.
He said that over the past year, police and security services in the UK have responded to the increased threat, by an increase in action. He said that there are currently 600 ongoing counter terrorism investigations and police are now making an average of one arrest per day, which is an increase of a third, compared to a year ago. “We have been able to convict 51 people in the last 12 months which speaks of how we are dedicated to dealing with the threat of terrorism.
The Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner said that the UK has “one of the best police services in the world”. He said that the “Arab spring” and “collapse of regimes in the Middle East” contributed towards increase in radicalisation and threat of terrorism. He updated that from Nov 14 to Oct 15 there have been 342 counter terrorism related arrests in the UK.
When asked about attacks on Muslims in Britain following the Paris tragedy, the police commander said that it’s true that hate crimes go up whenever something big happens in the world. “We are fortunate that we have one of the best investigators in the world who conduct investigations thoroughly and play a key role in bringing criminals to justice. We are fortunate that we have not seen any major rise in crimes against Muslims post Paris attacks.”