The Islamic fundamentalist organisations in Britain, particularly those linked with Pakistan, have come under scrutiny and their activists are being monitored by a special branch of the Scotland Yard and intelligence cells of various other anti-terrorism agencies.

The refusal of visa to Jamaat-ulema-Islami leader in Pakistan, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, to attend a Khatam-i-Nabuwwat Conference in Birmingham on August 9, has alerted the fundamentalist groups here. The organisations like Markaz-ud-dawa-wal-Irshad, the British wing of the Lashkar-i-Tayyaba and Tahrik-e-Kashmir and Harkut-ul Mujahideen, which have been very aggressive and active here and now afraid that the British have lost patience with them.

Normally the annual dinner by the Pak-UK association was attended by 30 to 40 British MPs but this year none was present. The signal, specially after Kargil and threats ... to Americans by the likes of Fazalur Rehman, is that the tolerance level for the Islamic militant groups has dipped very low.

A highly placed source informed that the intelligence departments of most western countries are now pooling information and coordinating their monitoring of such Islamic groups.

... The Maulanas who were calling for jihad from various mosques and encouraging the young to volunteer (to serve) in Kashmir or to join Taliban have suddenly gone underground. But the authorities fear that some militants could damage US interests in Britain and incidentally pose danger to the locals as well ... (Source: The Hindustan Times, 8 August, 1999)