The threat of another terrorist attack on the public transport network remains high, Britons have been warned ahead of Friday's first anniversary of the July 7th London bombings.
With a rising police profile around the capital ahead of a series of events at which survivors and the bereaved will honour the 52 innocent people killed in those four attacks, Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police, said yesterday there would be an increased state of alert on Friday.
However, he stressed there was no specific intelligence about any new threat, adding that the challenge for officers was to seek out potential threats without alienating communities.
Mr Trotter's warning coincided with two separate parliamentary committee reports, one underlining the impact of the Iraq war on a "likely" increased al-Qaeda threat to the United Kingdom, the other reviving the controversial question of allowing police to hold terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.
Yesterday's Sunday Times reported that Chancellor Gordon Brown is set to support increasing the present 28-day limit to 90 days as one of his "early pledges" in preparation for his presumed succession as prime minister.
And today, in a majority report, the influential Home Affairs Select Committee of MPs will say police powers will almost certainly have to be extended, while launching a scathing attack on the government's alleged failure to properly examine the police case on the 90-day issue, which provoked a Labour rebellion and led to Tony Blair's first Commons defeat last November.
The select committee says extra safeguards are needed before any extension can be contemplated, and that it has seen no evidence that a longer period would have been justified by recent cases. However, it adds: "The growing number of cases and the increase in suspects monitored by the police and security services make it entirely possible, and perhaps increasingly likely, that there will be cases that do provide that justification. We therefore believe that the 28-day limit may well prove inadequate in the future."
The committee chairman, Labour MP John Denham, said: "We are convinced that the nature of the threat has changed, and so therefore has the response. Earlier arrest, which means longer detention, is serving an important new function in disrupting and preventing terrorism."
However, he continued: "On an issue like this the trust and confidence of the public, and the Muslim community specifically, is absolutely crucial. Any new legislation should not propose longer than 28 days' detention unless the evidence is compelling, and we propose a new independent body to keep this under review."
In its report, meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Committee of MPs has concluded that the threat to the UK from al-Qaeda is likely to have increased, with the Iraq war providing a boost for extremist groups. The MPs said the terror network posed "an extremely serious and brutal threat", which would become more difficult to tackle in the future. The report also argued that too little effort was being put into communication with the Arab and Islamic world in an effort to counter-terrorist propaganda.
At a ceremony in Leeds, yesterday, the city's first Asian lord mayor said it had moved on and grown stronger since the July 7th atrocity. Speaking at a symbolic tree-planting ceremony in Beeston, close to an area with which three of the suicide bombers had connections, Mohammed Iqbal said that despite the negative publicity the city had remained united during the past year.
"People have stood together and supported one another," said Mr Iqbal. "People rightly condemned what happened. It was wrong. It was anti-human, anti-Islam. People have stood up to the extremists and said it was wrong."
However, while underlining the risks attached to disadvantage, Islamophobia and alienation among Muslim youths, Britain's most senior Asian police chief, assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, warned "that certain elements of Muslim communities are in denial about July 7th and about Muslim extremism."
Sunday Times reported that Chancellor Gordon Brown is set to support increasing the present 28-day limit to 90 days as one of his "early pledges" in preparation for his presumed succession as prime minister.
And today, in a majority report, the influential Home Affairs Select Committee of MPs will say police powers will almost certainly have to be extended, while launching a scathing attack on the government's alleged failure to properly examine the police case on the 90-day issue, which provoked a Labour rebellion and led to Tony Blair's first Commons defeat last November.
The select committee says extra safeguards are needed before any extension can be contemplated, and that it has seen no evidence that a longer period would have been justified by recent cases. However, it adds: "The growing number of cases and the increase in suspects monitored by the police and security services make it entirely possible, and perhaps increasingly likely, that there will be cases that do provide that justification. We therefore believe that the 28-day limit may well prove inadequate in the future."
The committee chairman, Labour MP John Denham, said: "We are convinced that the nature of the threat has changed, and so therefore has the response. Earlier arrest, which means longer detention, is serving an important new function in disrupting and preventing terrorism."
However, he continued: "On an issue like this the trust and confidence of the public, and the Muslim community specifically, is absolutely crucial. Any new legislation should not propose longer than 28 days' detention unless the evidence is compelling, and we propose a new independent body to keep this under review."
In its report, meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Committee of MPs has concluded that the threat to the UK from al-Qaeda is likely to have increased, with the Iraq war providing a boost for extremist groups. The MPs said the terror network posed "an extremely serious and brutal threat", which would become more difficult to tackle in the future. The report also argued that too little effort was being put into communication with the Arab and Islamic world in an effort to counter-terrorist propaganda.
At a ceremony in Leeds, yesterday, the city's first Asian lord mayor said it had moved on and grown stronger since the July 7th atrocity. Speaking at a symbolic tree-planting ceremony in Beeston, close to an area with which three of the suicide bombers had connections, Mohammed Iqbal said that despite the negative publicity the city had remained united during the past year.
"People have stood together and supported one another," said Mr Iqbal. "People rightly condemned what happened. It was wrong. It was anti-human, anti-Islam. People have stood up to the extremists and said it was wrong."
However, while underlining the risks attached to disadvantage, Islamophobia and alienation among Muslim youths, Britain's most senior Asian police chief, assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, warned "that certain elements of Muslim communities are in denial about July 7th and about Muslim extremism."