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British police carries out raid near Olympic Park, 6 arrested

LONDON: Armed British police carried out an early-morning raid on a residential address near London's Olympic Park, using smoke grenades and a stun gun in what they said was a pre-planned anti-terror operation. Six persons were arrested there — and in a separate raid in a western part of the Capital — but Scotland Yard said the operation was not linked to the upcoming Games, due to kick off on July 27.

Police didn't identify the suspects, who range in age from 18 to 30. However, Mizanur Rahman, who is involved with a Muslim activist group, said the three men arrested in Stratford, the neighbourhood that contains Olympic Park, were brothers and claimed that one was a former police officer.

A police spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police policy declined to comment on the claim.

Resident John Smallshaw said one of the raids took place at a residence on Abbey Road, only about a mile (roughly 1.6 kilometers) from the Olympic Park.

He told The Associated Press he was woken up just after 4 a.m. by "five loud bangs in quick succession" and saw police raiding the house. He said he later witnessed "one young man taken on foot to a waiting ambulance."

Another man was later taken into an unmarked police car, he said, adding that plainclothes officers were still at the premise.

Continuing searches are being carried out at eight separate addresses in east, west and north London and at one business in east London, police said. Rahman identified one of the addresses as being in Old Street, near London's financial district.

Police said all the suspects have been taken to a southeast London police station.

Intelligence officials say there has been an expected increase in chatter among extremist groups, but there are still no specific or credible threats targeting the Olympics. The terror level is labeled substantial, a notch below severe. A substantial threat level indicates that an attack is a strong possibility. 

New Delhi: With the Delhi Police custody of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Abu Jundal set to end on Thursday, a court here will decide whether to extend custody of Jundal to the city police or hand him over to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) for further interrogation.

The Delhi Police has refused to give NIA Jundal’s custody by claiming that the investigating agency has already questioned the LeT operative. However, the NIA says that the interrogation was not in connection with an FIR registered against Jundal, on June 08, for allegedly amassing explosives to carry out blasts in India; hence it wants his custody to probe the matter further.

“The joint interrogation was only in connection with the 26/11 attacks case,” the NIA counsel told the court.

The court, after hearing the NIA and Delhi police’s arguments yesterday, deferred its decision for today.

Abu Jundal, the alleged 26/11 handler was arrested on June 21 after being deported by Saudi Arabian officials.

Cloudburst in Uttarakhand; Char Dham yatra hit

New Delhi: Cloud burst followed by a landslide left one person dead in Sehkot area of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand on Thursday.

The massive landslide also damaged a hotel and injured four other persons. Many other houses are reportedly damaged; official confirmation is awaited.

Meanwhile, another landslide in Pirahi in the same district has led to the temporary closure of the highway from Rishikesh to Kedarnath and Badrinath.

As the pilgrimage to the revered shrines Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, popularly known as the 'Char Dham Yatra' is in full swing; the landslide has stranded thousands of pilgrims.

The six-month long pilgrimage season began from Yamunotri and Gangotri, they were opened on April 24. The shrine of Badrinath opened on April 28, while the shrine of Kedarnath opened the next day.

Rains reach North, Mumbai waterlogged

Mumbai/New Delhi: Mumbai was waterlogged with unrelenting monsoon showers for the second consecutive day as North India got its first monsoon showers. However, the wait was over for the residents of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Heavy rainfall was reported from Lucknow, Barabanki, Unnao and Faizabad.

Mumbai residents woke up to the second consecutive day of intermittent heavy rains on Thursday. The temperature has dipped to a cool 26 degrees Celsius. The suburbs in particular received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours with Bandra receiving 117 mm and Vikhroli 103 mm. Dharavi, Dadar and Kurla have each received more than 90 mm of rainfall.

Constant pouring has also led to waterlogging in several areas like Sion, Dadar, Hindmata, Vakola and Parel. Trains on the western line were running between 10 and 15 minutes late.

India's largest dam, the Bhakra Nangal, has reached a critical level and there is a similar situation at seven reservoirs in the North. This has worsened the power situation further with major outages across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.