FIVE people from the Farnham area have been arrested in connection with the arson attack at the Islamabad Centre in Tilford in the early hours of Tuesday last week. During the incident, at 3 am, an inflammable device was reported to have been thrown at the gates of the centre in Sheephatch Lane. Nobody was hurt in the attack and no damage was caused. Police subsequently reported that all five have been released on bail. The investigation is ongoing. Although these arrests are not connected with the recent bombing attacks in London, Surrey Police said they continue to closely monitor crimes based on religion and race hatred and will prosecute any person committing such a crime with the full force of the law. Police were in evidence outside the Tilford centre at the weekend, with the 39th Jalsa Salana festival taking place at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot. The conference, which attracted up to 30,000 Ahmadi Muslims from 80 countries, had moved to the different venue this year after becoming too large for Tilford's country roads to cope with. But the Sheephatch Lane base, where around 3,000 visitors were staying, still had a part to play, providing the cooking facilities for food which was transported to feed the multitude at Rushmoor Arena. Over the same weekend an international Guide camp was taking place in Sheephatch Lane, with up to 800 Guides attending. The whole weekend went smoothly for both events, with minimal traffic disruption and no reports of incidents received by police. The conference at Rusmoor Arena was also a peaceful one, conducted with the Union flag flying high. Rafiq Hayat, national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK, used the occasion to call for a grass-roots revolution in mosques across the UK to root out fanaticism.
