The 2006 Cheetham Hill terrorism arrests was an anti-

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

operation in the United Kingdom, in which Habib Ahmed, a taxi driver, was arrested by six policemen at his home in

Cheetham Hill Cheetham is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north of Manchester city centre, close to the boundary with Salford, bounded by Brou ...

, Manchester on 23 August 2006 on suspicion of his involvement in a plan to attack on an individual. He appeared in court in London on 21 September accused of collecting information about potential terrorist targets and traveling to Pakistan earlier this year for terrorism training, after the full 28-day period of arrest without charge allowed under the

Terrorism Act 2006 The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. Th ...

. His wife, Mehreen Haji, was arrested on 19 September and charged with supplying £4000 to Habib Ahmed "knowing or having reasonable suspicion that it would, or might be used for the purposes of terrorism". Police claimed the pair were members of

Al-Muhajiroun Al-Muhajiroun ( ar, المهاجرون, "The Emigrants") is a Proscription, proscribed militant network based in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the group was Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian who previously belonged to ''Hizb ut-Tahrir''; he was not p ...

, the Islamic militant group founded by radical Muslim cleric

Omar Bakri Mohammed Omar Bakri Muhammad ( ar, عمر بکری محمد; born Omar Bakri Fostock; 1958) is a Syrian Islamist militant leader born in Aleppo. He was instrumental in developing Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom before leaving the group and heading t ...

who was then serving a jail sentence for inciting terrorism. In March 2007, Habib and Mehreen Haji appeared at the Central Criminal Court in London. Habib was accused of receiving weapons training for terrorism in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and having information likely to be useful for terrorism, while Mehreen was accused of raising money to be used for terrorism. Habib was remanded in custody for likely trial in January 2008 while Mehreen was released on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

. Two further men, both friends of Ahmed, were arrested at 6am on 2 September from houses in Cheetham Hill as part of the same investigation, but were released without charge two weeks later. They could not explain why they had been arrested; according to the family of one of the freed men, he was a member of Al Muhajiroun when he was younger, but now had nothing to do with the group. In September 2007, an associate of Habib Haji, Raingzieb Ahmed, from

Fallowfield Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilmslow Road and north–south by Wil ...

, Manchester, who had been in custody in Pakistan, was deported to the UK and arrested on arrival. He was charged with directing a terrorist organization, possessing information which would be useful to a terrorist and possessing a rucksack which contained traces of explosives. Both Habib Ahmed and Rangzieb Ahmed were found guilty of being members of

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

in December 2008. Mehreen Haji was cleared of two counts of arranging funding for the purposes of terrorism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheetham Hill terrorism arrests, 2006 2006 in the United Kingdom Counterterrorism in the United Kingdom History of Manchester

2000s in Manchester 2000s crimes in Manchester August 2006 events in the United Kingdom 2006 crimes in the United Kingdom

See also

References