SCOTLAND YARD is to investigate possible links between the men arrested over the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic aircraft and other British terrorists, including the July 7 bombers.
Intelligence sources in Pakistan believe that some of those in custody were visiting the country last year at the same time as two of the London bombers — the leader, Mohammad Sidique Khan, and his close friend, Shehzad Tanweer.
Tanweer visited a madrassa, or religious school, near Lahore that Pakistani authorities claim has, in the past, groomed young extremists visiting from the West.
Police in Pakistan have been asked to inquire whether two of the men arrested on Thursday attended the Markaz Taiba centre, run by an Islamic charity, Jamaat al-Dawat.
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of the charity, is under house arrest in Pakistan and is expected to be asked whether he knows any of the 24 arrested men. Mr Saeed used to run the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which has boasted a number of British nationals in its ranks and received millions of pounds in funding from sources in Britain, but he left the organisation in 2002 when it was outlawed by Pakistan. He denies any links to terror attacks.
Officials in Islamabad are also studying claims that two of the men being held in London were trained in handling explosives by one of al-Qaeda’s most-valued instructors, who is thought still to be on the run in Pakistan.
Trying to unravel where the thousands of British volunteers received training in Pakistan over the past decade is a tortuous business. So, too, is determining how various jihadi groups are tied to al-Qaeda’s leadership, which is believed to be in the mountainous border areas of Waziristan.
The training camps have been operating there for more than 15 years, frequently switching location and importing instructors from militant groups from Europe to Indonesia.
American intelligence agencies and Pakistani officials are convinced that an intended plot on this scale must have been choreographed by a veteran of al-Qaeda or one of the affiliates in the region, according to ABC News.
They have named a 29-year-old al-Qaeda military commander, Matiur Rehman, as the possible mastermind behind this plot, which US authorities believe was timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Mr Rehman is a wanted man in Pakistan. There is a $175,000 (£92,000) bounty on his head for his alleged role in two assassination attempts on President Musharraf and for plotting attacks on American interests in Karachi.
The FBI claims that he planted the bomb attacks near the US Consulate in the port city in March this year in which an American diplomat was killed.
He belonged to the group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which was formed in 1996 and wants to use violence to transform Pakistan into a radical Sunni Muslim state.
Mr Rehman passed through a number of training camps sponsored by al-Qaeda and proved himself a skilled explosives expert, with a talent for passing his knowledge to young recruits. As well as schooling fellow Pakistanis, he was asked to train the best of visiting Western recruits.
He is believed to be at large, but British officials have gone out of their way to praise Pakistan’s contribution to this investigation, with John Reid, the Home Secretary, thanking Islamabad yesterday.
This was not always the case. Scotland Yard is known to be frustrated by the assistance that the Pakistani intelligence organisation, the ISI, has provided in the hunt for those who assisted the 7/7 bombers.
Pakistani officials felt that Britain was trying to blame them for nurturing that network, saying that the four British-born bombers who killed 52 innocent people were radicalised before some of them visited the country.
In recent weeks, however, Pakistan has been more co-operative after criticism that it was not doing enough to stifle jihadi groups operating inside its borders.
There was a diplomatic onslaught on Islamabad, led by India, after Pakistan-based militants were blamed for orchestrating last month’s bomb attacks on commuter trains in Bombay that killed nearly 200 people.
Although security agencies in Islamabad say that they do not know who in Pakistan might have helped the 7/7 London bombers, they have acknowledged that they are questioning people allegedly linked to the latest reported plot. Officials say that were it not for British sub judice rules, they would reveal more about who they think is responsible.
The reported arrest a fortnight ago of an al-Qaeda weapons instructor near the border with Afghanistan could prove crucial in this investigation. Abdur Raheem is only 28 but he has reportedly visited some of the most infamous training centres set up by al-Qaeda and its affiliates, passing on his skills as an explosives expert.
He is a Turkman who joined scores of fellow Islamic militants from the former Soviet republics and drifted to the lawless tribal badlands on Pakistan’s mountainous borders. Mr Raheem has reportedly admitted training Western recruits, and is understood to have named Britons who have passed through his hands. One official who questioned him described him as an expert at handling all types of explosives. He uses a number of aliases, including Qasem, and was highly regarded by al-Qaeda commanders who employed him at training centres such as Khalden and the Farooq camp at Khost. Former students include the London-born shoebomber, Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a flight to Miami in December 2001.
Police and MI5 say that they have no accurate idea of how many Britons of Pakistani origins and others from the UK have been trained by militant outfits such as Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Muhammad that have strong support in communities in English cities. They were outlawed in January 2002 but operate under the cover of charities.
Intelligence agencies in the West have long been concerned about Pakistan’s network of madrassas. Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan travelled to Pakistan together. Khan spent months in a religious school near Lahore where he is alleged to have made contact with al-Qaeda figures. Since then the Pakistani Govern- ment has said that it has got rid of terror-training camps.
But since July 7 there have been some reports of new training centres. One is said to be in Mansehra, in the North West Frontier Province, although it is not known whether British volunteers have studied there. An institution that came under scrutiny last year is in the industrial city of Gujranwala, north of Lahore, where Tanweer was thought to have studied at a religious school.
One activist described them as being like youth hostels designed to get them to embrace the idea of giving up their lives for the cause.
TERROR LINKS TO PAKISTAN
Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan, two of the 7/7 suicide bombers, visited Pakistan from November 2004 to February 2005, telling people they were looking for a suitable school to study Islam. It is thought the visit was an important element in developing the idea of an attack in the UK
Britons have been involved in various groups in Pakistan, many of which have tacit government support, since the early Nineties. A list of 100 suspects drawn up by MI5 three years ago featured at least 40 British Pakistanis involved in the 'jihad' in the contested Himalayan state of Kashmir
Anti-terrorist officials remain deeply worried about young Britons enrolling at madrassas. They cannot monitor them because of the sheer number of Britons of Pakistani descent who travel to Pakistan
Some of the main fundraisers for the terror group suspected of masterminding the Bombay train bombings are operating from Britain, according to Indian intelligence officials. One of those identified in a dossier handed over to Tony Blair three years ago identified 14 men living in Britain, including a Pakistan-born multimillionaire who owns at least two luxury homes in London
A Briton, of Pakistani origin, believed to have been enlisted by Khan to take part in the 7/7 attacks, is still at large. Police think he visited Pakistan at the same time as Khan and Tanweer
