Thursday, December 11, 2003
German police in nationwide sweep against Islamists
Press Trust of India Berlin, December 11
German police swooped on more than 1,000 addresses across Germany at dawn on Thursday in a crackdown on an outlawed radical Islamic group, the interior ministry said.
Among more than 1,000 people targeted for carrying on the activities of a banned organisation are four who are under investigation for membership of a terrorist organisation, the ministry added.
The federal prosecutor's office said the four were suspected of plotting attacks on as yet unspecified targets.
The action targeted the so-called Caliphate, which was banned two years ago after the September 11 attacks on suspicion of pursuing extremist aims under the protection of its status as a religious organisation.
The Caliphate was set up in 1984 by Metin Kaplan of Turkey, who finished a four-year prison term in March for inciting group members to murder a rival Islamic leader.
Kaplan's apartment in the western city of Cologne was one of the properties searched.
Interior Minister Otto Schily said in a statement that Friday's searches had prevented the organisation carrying on its activities.
"These searches will make it unmistakeably clear to those supporters who reorganised themselves and continue to propagate the anti-constitutional goals of the group that every breach of the ban will be resolutely and determinedly pursued."
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.