Title: AK 47 training held in London mosque: Report
Author:  
Publication: The Times of India
Date: Feb 17, 2002
URL: http://www.timesofindia.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=1238035

LONDON: British Islamic extremists have been involved in weapons training with assault rifles at a mosque in London, a British Sunday paper said.

Intelligence sources quoted by the Observer said that hardline Islamists practised with Kalashnikov AK 47s at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London as part of recruitment to fight alongside Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The revelations will renew pressure on the British government to crack down on Islamic militants using Britain as a base, the paper said.

MI5 intelligence service recruited worshippers at the mosque who opposed the hardline stance taken by the controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, the Observer said.

The intelligence recruits then monitored practices at the mosque which include the stripping and reassembling of Kalashnikov rifles in the basement, the paper said.

Abu Hamza, the most influential and radical of the prayer leaders at the mosque, said Saturday that, as far as he knew, no harmful activities had ever taken place there.

Abu Hamza, who is wanted on terrorist charges in Yemen, told the Observer that the mosque may have been the victim of a smear campaign by foreign agents.

Last month the Observer revealed that a video showing the execution of Algerian conscripts had been circulated at the mosque.

Abu Hamza denied it had ever been used for recruiting purposes.