Police forces across Britain have found and dismantled more bomb packages amid heightened concerns about a renewed wave of unrest in Northern Ireland that could undermine security in the entire country.
The Scottish police said on Wednesday they had carried out a controlled explosion on a package sent to the University of Glasgow.
Police in east London also said they had ordered evacuation of some buildings in the University of Essex after they became suspicious of a package sent to the facility.
The parcels were discovered a day after bomb packages were sent to London’s Heathrow and City Airport, and Waterloo station. Counter-terrorism officials said earlier on Wednesday that the parcels sent to those crowded locations were small but highly sophisticated, meaning they could have been designed and built by special terrorist groups.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson of the Scottish police said his unit and the police in the capital had launched a joint investigation into who sent the parcels and why.
“Police Scotland is liaising with the Metropolitan Police in relation to their investigation into packages received in London yesterday,” said Johnson, adding, “It is too early to say whether there is a link.”
Authorities have sought to soothe public concerns about a return of violence on Northern Ireland, a British province where insurgents mostly demand breaking away from London’s rule and a merger with the Republic of Ireland.
Thousands were killed in the region, as well as in the Republic and in mainland Britain, in nearly three decades of insurgency ending in 1998.
Several attacks, including bombing and shootings have been reported in Northern Ireland this year, prompting concerns that groups opposed to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement are planning wider attacks across Britain to protest London’s rule over the region.
The renewed tensions come amid concerns that a disorderly withdrawal of Britain from the European Union at the end of March could restore checks and controls on the border between the two Irelands. – Press TV.
