A Muslim policeman removed from his job guarding the Prime Minister on “national security grounds” launched a claim for compensation. Firearms officer Amjad Farooq, 40, was transferred from the elite Diplomatic Protection Group on the advice of MI5, after it had carried out vetting checks on him. Now, in what is believed to be a first for employment tribunals, the hearing into his claim that he suffered racial and religious discrimination is being held behind closed doors on the grounds of national security. The case centres on concerns over a mosque that PC Farooq and his family attended in Swindon. Intelligence service vetting is understood to have revealed an alleged link between a former imam at the Jamia Masjid mosque in Swindon and the Sipah-e-Sahaba terror group in Pakistan. Believed by intelligence agencies to be a part of the Al-Qa’ida network, Sipah is outlawed in Pakistan and is on the Home Office’s list of 15 banned Islamic terror groups in the UK. PC Farooq insists he did not associate with any radicals at the mosque.
