PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF of Pakistan says he is angered by the failure of British police and intelligence services to stop young British militants such as the 7/7 suicide bombers visiting his country before staging their terror attacks.

He claims that British secur-ity services did not tell him until three weeks after the 7/7 bombs that Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the suicide bombers, and another of the gang, Shehzad Tanweer, had slipped into Pakistan only months before the attacks, which killed 52 innocent people.

He claims that British Intelligence kept secret its information about the two Yorkshire-born bombers for 17 months and their links with known Pakistani terror suspects. His disclosure will again raise questions about whether Scotland Yard, MI5 and MI6 have told all they know about the British bombers, three of whom were of Pakistani origin.

Calls by survivors of the attacks for an independent inquiry to determine what the authorities knew about the bombers will be given fresh weight by the allegations.

General Musharraf revealed this apparently serious breakdown in Pakistan’s dealings with MI6 in a TV interview in the US to promote his memoir, In the Line of Fire, which is being serialised in The Times. He told 60 Minutes on CBS News: “It disappoints me, yes. But at the same time it annoys us also. They are not Pakistani. They are born and bred in Britain and they are British.” He did not say why the 7/7 bombers and other convicted British-born terrorists visited Pakistan and denied that their attacks were planned there.

His allegation is likely to deepen strains with British security agencies, which do not believe that Pakistani security chiefs have shared all they know about the 7/7 bombers despite promises after the attacks of full co-operation.

General Musharraf has already antagonised the CIA with his claim, disclosed in The Times yesterday, that it secretly paid his Government millions of dollars for handing over hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects to America. This is against the US government rules that only private individuals should receive reward money.

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