Police officers have been carrying out routine searches of Heathrow Cameron backs Pakistan leadership
Police officers have been carrying out routine searches of Heathrow Pakistan’s leadership should be backed as it is in the UK’s interests to aid “democratic forces” in the country, David Cameron has told the BBC.
The PM’s comment came as he prepares to address the Commons later about US special forces killing Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
He said it would be wrong to “throw up our hands in despair and walk away” and not engage with Pakistan.
Mr Cameron spoke on Monday to the Pakistan and Afghanistan presidents.
A 45-minute meeting of the Cobra civil emergencies committee was also held on Monday evening.
UK embassies have been ordered to review security amid fears of reprisal attacks, and Britons have been urged to be vigilant.
BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said security officials in the UK would likely be watching “those people they already are watching, and asking ‘are they speeding up what they might have been trying to do?'”.
He said they would also be looking at other countries to see if there was a “violent reaction”.
Recent – foiled – plots, such as the printer cartridges, one of which came through the UK, have come out of Yemen.
“That’s the place that has been the centre of some of the most dangerous activity, in terms of al-Qaeda,” our correspondent said.
“That kind of group won’t be affected operationally by the death of Osama Bin Laden.”
Bin Laden, believed to be behind the 9/11 attacks, was killed on Sunday about 62 miles from Pakistan’s capital in an US operation which did not involve Pakistan.
Mr Cameron hailed the death as “a great success”, but said it was not the end of terror threats.
He chaired a 45-minute Cobra meeting on Monday evening.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The group welcomed the president’s announcement and agreed it was an important step forward in the fight against terror.
“The group also discussed the potential impacts of the incident. They agreed to continue to make every effort to counter terrorism and extremism.”
Mr Cameron spoke to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, on Monday.
Downing Street said: “The prime minister made clear in the conversations that Britain would continue to work extremely closely with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to tackle the terrorist threat from al-Qaeda and from the Taliban.”
David Cameron: “It is a massive step forward”
Writing in the Washington Post, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has denied that the killing of Osama Bin Laden in his country is a sign of its failure to tackle terrorism, adding that his country was “perhaps the world’s greatest victim of terrorism”.
The Foreign Office has urged Britons overseas to “exercise caution in all public places and avoid demonstrations, large crowds of people and public events”.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has also ordered British military bases – both in the UK and abroad – to maintain a “high level of vigilance”.
Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales is beginning a three-day trip to Washington, where he will meet US President Barack Obama at the White House.
Mr Cameron was phoned by Mr Obama before dawn on Monday UK time, a couple of hours before the president announced the news in a televised address.
Speaking later from the prime minister’s country residence, Chequers, he said: “This news will be welcomed right across our country.
Analysis
Those who follow Bin Laden may now wish to show that the death of their leader has not affected their ability to pursue his agenda of violence.
Pakistan’s main Taliban faction has already threatened to attack the country’s rulers and the US and the Foreign Office has urged Britons overseas to “exercise caution”. The prime minister also made clear there is a need for particular vigilance in the weeks ahead.
Many groups affiliated to al-Qaeda – like the offshoot in Yemen which has been most active in recent months – will be barely affected by Bin Laden’s death operationally.
The Home Office in London is making clear the threat level will remain where it is – at the second highest level, meaning an attack is highly likely.
However, al-Qaeda supporters have been trying to carry out a successful, major attack for many years and even if their desire may be increased by Bin Laden’s death, their ability to actually do so will not have changed. Any violence is therefore more likely to be low-level.
But while the fear is of reprisals in the short term, the hope will be that the death will – in the longer term – help erode the appeal of al-Qaeda’s ideology.
“Of course, it does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist terror – indeed we will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead. But it is, I believe, a massive step forward.”
The PM plans to make a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the network may try to reassert itself and stressed the likelihood of reprisals against UK targets.
The threat level to the UK from international terrorism has remained at severe since January 2010, indicating a terrorist attack is highly likely.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which includes representatives from 16 government departments and agencies, sets the threat level.
Bin Laden was top of the US “most wanted” list, and President Obama said his death was “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda”.
In the attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September, 2001, 67 Britons were among the 3,000 people killed when four planes were hijacked and flown into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
Tony Blair, UK prime minister at the time of the attacks, expressed his “heartfelt gratitude to President Obama and to all of those who so brilliantly undertook and executed this operation”.
Tony Blair: “If you, by acts of terror, kill innocent civilians, we will find you”
Labour leader Ed Miliband, while reiterating the call for vigilance, said: “The world is a safer place as a result of the death of Osama Bin Laden because he is no longer there to command or encourage terrorism.”
Farooq Murad, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said few would mourn the death of Bin Laden, “least of all Muslims”.
“Many Muslims will reflect on the 10 years that have passed in which our faith and our community have been seen through the prism of terrorism and security.
“His extremism has been responsible for the deaths of many people, including many Muslims around the world.”
Bin Laden evaded the forces of the US and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $25m (£15m) bounty on his head.
He was killed in a firefight in a fortified residence in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad.
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