Pakistan intelligence probes links with London bombers

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s intelligence services have launched a probe into possible links between the London bombers and any extremist groups in the South Asian nation, security officials said yesterday.

“Britain has not so far conveyed specific information here from its ongoing investigation, but we are looking for possible links on our own,” a top security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. All four of the June 7 bombs that killed 52 people on London’s public transport network appear to have been suicide blasts, each perpetrated by British Muslims of Pakistani origin.At least one of them, 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer, who lived in Leeds, northern England, travelled to Pakistan for two months earlier this year to study at a religious school, his family was reported as saying.Pakistani officials, however, played down the role any such visits might have played, saying it was more likely the bombers had been cultivated by a terror organisation in Britain.”While it is possible one or two of them may have been religiously motivated by elements in Pakistan, we have a strong feeling that they were recruited and trained inside Britain for the suicide acts,” said the security official, based in the eastern city of Lahore.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said Wednesday that Islamabad had provided London with information that helped it foil terrorist attacks in the run-up to the May general elections.He declined to say whether Britain had asked for information from Pakistan in relation to the London attacks.The security official said Islamabad had also informed London last year when they obtained information about an active British al Qaeda cell that was headed by the alleged head of the network in Britain, Abu Eisa al-Hindi.”On the basis of that information the British government was able to arrest around eight to 10 activists and then there was little or no exchange of information about their fate,” he said.”According to our information that group was planning Kamikaze attacks in Britain in and around Heathrow airport.”Pakistan’s foreign ministry would not say if Islamabad had received any specific request from the British government to investigate the suspected bombers’ ties to Pakistan.”As far as Pakistan is concerned, we are co-operating with the British government on counter-terrorism efforts.Our co-operation is on a continuous basis,” spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told AFP.”We have intelligence sharing mechanism with more than 48 countries including the UK and Pakistan will fully co-operate with Britain and other countries in fighting this menace.”The roundup of several terror suspects last year in London did not curb extremist activity in Britain, where clandestine groups have been broadening their support and also channelling funds secretly to sympathisers in Pakistan, according to Pakistani security analysts.- Nampa-AFPAll four of the June 7 bombs that killed 52 people on London’s public transport network appear to have been suicide blasts, each perpetrated by British Muslims of Pakistani origin.At least one of them, 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer, who lived in Leeds, northern England, travelled to Pakistan for two months earlier this year to study at a religious school, his family was reported as saying.Pakistani officials, however, played down the role any such visits might have played, saying it was more likely the bombers had been cultivated by a terror organisation in Britain.”While it is possible one or two of them may have been religiously motivated by elements in Pakistan, we have a strong feeling that they were recruited and trained inside Britain for the suicide acts,” said the security official, based in the eastern city of Lahore.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said Wednesday that Islamabad had provided London with information that helped it foil terrorist attacks in the run-up to the May general elections.He declined to say whether Britain had asked for information from Pakistan in relation to the London attacks.The security official said Islamabad had also informed London last year when they obtained information about an active British al Qaeda cell that was headed by the alleged head of the network in Britain, Abu Eisa al-Hindi.”On the basis of that information the British government was able to arrest around eight to 10 activists and then there was little or no exchange of information about their fate,” he said.”According to our information that group was planning Kamikaze attacks in Britain in and around Heathrow airport.”Pakistan’s foreign ministry would not say if Islamabad had received any specific request from the British government to investigate the suspected bombers’ ties to Pakistan.”As far as Pakistan is concerned, we are co-operating with the British government on counter-terrorism efforts.Our co-operation is on a continuous basis,” spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told AFP.”We have intelligence sharing mechanism with more than 48 countries including the UK and Pakistan will fully co-operate with Britain and other countries in fighting this menace.”The roundup of several terror suspects last year in London did not curb extremist activity in Britain, where clandestine groups have been broadening their support and also channelling funds secretly to sympathisers in Pakistan, according to Pakistani security analysts.- Nampa-AFP