A CACHE of military equipment, including chemical weapons protection suits, gas masks, knives and blank-firing guns was found hidden in Finsbury Park mosque during a police search.

Senior anti-terrorist sources say that the equipment was used for sending young Muslim recruits on jihad training camps in Britain. Former followers of Abu Hamza have told The Times that they attended training sessions in the Brecon Beacons and Dorset.

Operation Mermant, the raid on the mosque, attracted widespread criticism when it was staged in January 2003 at the height of the search for a terrorist cell that was suspected of making ricin, cyanide and other toxins. Scotland Yard has only now revealed what was found at the building which, for six years, was the fortress from which Abu Hamza preached jihad.

The cleric had been attracting the attention of police and intelligence services, and that of foreign security services, since he arrived at Finsbury Park in 1997. He had turned the mosque into a haven for terrorists.

The decision to put an end to that situation, with the 2003 police raid, was taken at the highest levels within Scotland Yard. Sir John Stevens, then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, described it as carrying “very high risks”. More than 1,000 officers were deployed and several arrests were made but the type and quantity of terrorist material found in the building surprised police.

The replica firearms could have been converted to fire live rounds. Also discovered were stun guns, handcuffs, military radio equipment, mess tins and camp cooking equipment, combat clothing, walkietalkies and maps. “Our assessment is that this is material which over the course of time had been used in training camps probably here in the United Kingdom,” a senior police source said.

For many young radicals, the survivalist sessions were the beginning of a journey that would lead them to al-Qaeda and Mujahidin training camps in Afghanistan, Kashmir and other jihad battlegrounds.

Police refused to discuss the search of the mosque before because they did not want to prejudice a number of terrorist trials. The search, which resulted in the mosque being closed for 18 months, was criticised at the time as an assault on a place of worship, but senior police sources said it was an operational necessity.

It also uncovered the paraphernalia of a terrorist support and fundraising network. There were hundreds of stolen and forged identity documents, including driving licences, French and Belgian ID cards, credit cards, cheque books and passports. There was also laminating equipment for forging documents.

One officer said that when he pushed up a ceiling tile dozens of documents fell on his head. Other papers were found under carpets. In an envelope marked Portugal, there were five blank Portuguese passports.

Muslim officers were deployed to ensure the mosque was treated with respect and that copies of the Koran were handled correctly. Those officers were “shocked” by the squalid conditions inside the building. Dozens of men slept in the basement but there was neither electricity nor running water because utility bills had not been paid.

The mosque has since been reopened under the control of a new board of trustees and is undergoing extensive redecoration and renovations.

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