NEIGHBOURS in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga were curious about why so many young Muslims used to visit Qayyum Abdul Jamal.

The oldest of the 17 arrested as part of a North American terror cell, Mr Jamal is alleged to have encouraged his followers to attend training camps in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. Some of the Canadians are believed to have attended the same camps, run by al-Qaeda, as British militants — thought to include at least two of those who murdered 52 people in London on July 7.

The Westerners were taught weapons handling and bombmaking, and how to operate cells and stay in touch with activists from other countries, using the internet. Their role back in suburbia was to radicalise other young people and pass on expertise.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police worked with Scotland Yard in Pakistan, tracing the movement of several individuals allegedly working on plots to bomb targets in Britain.

Investigators in Toronto are questioning Mr Jamal, 43, about claims that he helped to run a training camp in Washago, a rural community where locals heard machinegun fire and saw men in camouflage gear.

Police claim that the group tried to obtain three tonnes of ammonium nitrate for a bombing campaign, a charge all those arrested vigorously deny.

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