North East CTU arrest man over Rotherham bomb threat

The Guardian reports a 43 year old man has been arrested by the north-east counter-terrorism unit over a bomb threat sent to a Rotherham mosque earlier this month.

The threat, which police assessed to be “credible,” was sent to the Jamia Masjid Abu Bakr in Rotherham. The note stated “Next time it will be a bomb, you Muslim scum.”

The letter was signed with the number 1488, believed to be used by neo-Nazi groups.

The Guardian reports the man from Plymouth was held by police at 8am this morning, Friday 19 August.

Sabir Hussain, secretary of Jamia Masjid Abu Bakr, described the bomb threat as “appalling and very frightening”.

He told BBC News the Muslim community in Rotherham had felt “under siege” since the publication of the Jay report on the sexual exploitation of teenage girls by men predominantly of Pakistani heritage. The town has attracted a number ofprotests by far right groups since the report was published in 2014.