Police and Reid must explain raids

A POLICE raid on the office of any political party is a staggering development in a democracy.

Yesterday, a force of about 200 police raided the homes of some six republican activists in north and west Belfast at about 5am. A handful of men were arrested and a quantity of documents were seized.

Later that morning, police raided the main administrative offices of Sinn Féin in the Stormont Executive building. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) indicated that while the raids were part of an investigation into intelligence-gathering by republicans, there was no connection with the raid in which highly sensitive police files were stolen from Castlereagh police station on St Patrick’s Day.