BRITAIN: The Metropolitan Police have started an investigation into claims that about 200 British Muslims recruited to the Taliban may be preparing to return home and launch terror attacks against the UK.
BRITAIN:However Downing Street said the threat of "military action" by Mr Hassan Butt - born in Manchester but now now based in Pakistan - should be treated with caution, and that there was "no evidence" to back his claim to have recruited hundreds of British citizens to fight for the Taliban.
As mainstream Muslim leaders condemned Mr Butt's comments, made yesterday on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, a spokesman for the Met confirmed they were exploring the possibility of a prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2000, which makes it an offence for British citizens to incite acts of terror abroad, arrange training for terrorism or belong to, support or recruit for proscribed terrorist organisations.
While some British volunteers had been "martyred" in Afghanistan, Mr Butt said others remained in Pakistan where they were "organising operations".
He said: "If they do return (to Britain) I do believe they will take military action within Britain. One thing I've always tried to stress is that the mujahideen that are coming in from Britain to strike at the heart of the enemy which is within its own country, within Britain I have always been in favour of this."
Suggesting that targets might include "British military and government institutes, as well as British military and government individuals", Mr Butt also claimed he had entered Britain for a period of three weeks following the September 11th terror attacks on America and went undetected by the security services.
"The mere fact that the British government had no idea I was (here) shows the incompetence and vulnerability that Britain has when it comes to dealing with the mujahideen and the Muslims." The leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, said Mr Butt was one of a small group of misguided young men using Islam as "a cover for their evil designs." He continued: "I think it is more fantasy than realism, but I simply hope these people, these young men, will realise their mistakes, mend their ways and re-order their priorities."
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "Attention seeking does take many different forms. We have to be slightly careful in giving too much credibility to claims like this."
However, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Mr Oliver Letwin, said Mr Butt's claim to have re-entered Britain last month had to be taken seriously.
Mr Letwin acknowledged Mr Butt might be a fantasist. However if he had successfully entered the country and avoided detection, Mr Letwin said, "then it tends to suggest the measures the Home Secretary has rightly taken to try to increase the level of our intelligence effort have not yet bitten sufficiently".