BRITAIN is facing a "very dangerous" battle against terrorists who are becoming increasingly skilled at evading border controls, the UK's immigration minister admitted yesterday.
Phil Woolas warned of the danger posed by "clean skins" – suspects unknown to the security services – as he defended the UK's immigration system after ten of the 12 men arrested for an alleged terror plot were found to have entered the UK on dubious
student visas.
Mr Woolas admitted the system was not perfect but said that without it, loopholes would turn into a "gaping chasm and we would not be able to protect the public". He added: "We are not naive on this. This is a big and very dangerous battle we are waging."
Police continued to search ten addresses across north-west England yesterday amid fears that al-Qaeda had been planning an "Easter spectacular" bombing of shopping centres and a nightclub.
Last night the 12 suspects – 11 Pakistani nationals and one UK-born Briton – remained in custody as specialist teams searched properties in Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire.
It emerged that MI5 officials had been alerted to the fear that shopping centres were being targeted when some of the suspects were seen taking photographs of each other at the Arndale and Trafford Centre shopping complexes in Manchester. Other locations said to have been under threat were St Ann's Square and the Birdcage nightclub in Manchester.
However, Greater Manchester's chief constable, Peter Fahy, said he had "no hesitation" in visiting those places, and shoppers were out in force yesterday at the start of the Bank Holiday weekend.
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, spoke to Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, on Thursday night and they vowed to work together to tackle violent extremism.
The talks were held amid concern about the number of suspects who had come to the UK from Pakistan on student visas.
Of the 11 Pakistani nationals among those arrested in raids on Wednesday, ten were in Britain on student visas.
Pakistan's high commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, dismissed claims that his country was not doing enough to tackle extremists, insisting the UK needed to do more.
He said Pakistani authorities could help carry out background checks on student visa applicants but were not allowed to.
However, a UK-based radical cleric said a crackdown on visa regulations would be meaningless because there were "101 ways to enter the country".
Anjem Choudary, a former right-hand man to firebrand preacher Omar Bakri, said there was an influx of people from the Indian sub-continent to Britain, many of whom were angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"To say we would stop attacks with background checks is wrong because al-Qaeda are already three steps ahead of this," he said.
Professor Paul Wilkinson, a terrorism expert from St Andrews University, said banning students from Pakistan would be an own goal.
He said potential al-Qaeda militants needed to be won over on a "hearts and minds" basis.
Prof Wilkinson said: "The UK has a long-standing reputation for welcoming genuine, legitimate students from many countries and it is of great assistance to Britain's position internationally that we have so many people in key positions in lots of countries who have benefited from an education here.
"Pakistan has the most serious problems of many kinds. Stability there is a major objective, and we should be quietly assisting the Pakistani government in achieving this."
Mr Woolas insisted yesterday that foreign national students were checked against watchlists of criminals and suspects from other countries. He said there were 285 million people coming in and out of the UK every year, including nearly 400,000 issued with student visas.
"It's naive to think that we don't check – we do work very closely with the Pakistani authorities, indeed we've been criticised for doing so," he said. "We do have these systems of checking these people to the best of our ability and we are acknowledged in international police circles as being one of the best in the world."
Mr Woolas said he had no details of the arrests but "the fact of the matter" was that the individuals had been identified.
"The serious point that the opposition parties and other commentators must address is that if they continue to oppose our electronic borders system, then not only will there be loopholes, there will be a gaping chasm and we would not be able to protect the public," he said.
Tory shadow home secretary Chris Grayling called for the government to "urgently step up" background checks on students coming to Britain from countries linked to terror.
Government figures showed 42,292 student visas were issued to Pakistani students between April 2004 and April 2008.
In 2007-8, the last financial year for which figures are available, 9,544 Pakistani nationals were given student visas.
Figures from 2006 showed 98 per cent of applications for extension of leave to remain in Britain were granted and only 2 per cent were rejected.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of campaign group Migrationwatch UK, said student visas were a "gaping hole" in Britain's borders.
He said: "Applicants from countries of concern should be given a full interview by a UK-based visa officer and only admitted if they can demonstrate that they are genuine."
Police start searching the local haunts of arrested suspects caught in terror raidsTEN locations have been searched by police looking for evidence of an alleged terrorist plot to bomb shopping centres and a nightclub.
An address in a deprived area of Liverpool became the latest to be raided, amid rumours that officers were searching for a bomb-making factory. This followed the arrest of 12 suspects on Wednesday in connection with a suspected plot described by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as "very big".
The raids had to be brought forward after the UK's chief counter-terrorism officer, Bob Quick, was pictured holding a folder in which details of the operation could be made out. Mr Quick has since resigned, to be replaced by John Yates.
Yesterday, police searched a second flat in a rundown complex in Liverpool. A flat in the same block in Highgate Street, Edge Hill, was raided on Wednesday along with other properties in the city, together with addresses in the Cheetham Hill area of Greater Manchester and Clitheroe, Lancashire.
Jalaraju Gorripati, 29, who lives in the Highgate Street flats, said he knew most of the residents.
He said: "Most of the people are students, about 85 per cent.
"I know most of the people here and I don't think anyone's capable of being involved in a terror plot."
Elsewhere, forensics officers continued searching the raided addresses in Cheetham Hill at Galsworthy Avenue, Abercarn Close, Esmond Road, Greenhill Road and the Cybernet Café in Cheetham Hill Road.
Searches were also taking place at Earle Road in Liverpool and two addresses in Cedar Grove, Toxteth, Liverpool.
Two jailed terrorists – one a Pakistani national who came to the UK on a student visa – lived a street away from two suspects who were arrested at a lodging house in Galsworthy Avenue.
Cheetham Hill taxi driver Habib Ahmed, 29, was jailed for ten years at Manchester Crown Court in December – nine for being a member of al-Qaeda and an additional year for possessing a document for terrorism-related purposes.
Mobile phone salesman Abdul Rahman, 26, was imprisoned for six years at the same court in November 2007 after he became the first person in Britain to be convicted of a charge of disseminating terrorist information.
