London, August 13
The teenaged son of a Muslim immigrant from India and a suspected al-Qaida leader in Britain are among the 24 persons arrested in connection with the foiled plot to blow up the US-bound planes from Britain, according to a media report here.Seventeen-year-old Abdul Patel, the youngest among the suspects held last Thursday, is the son of a Muslim immigrant from India, the report said.
Patel was one of the 19 suspects who were named and whose assets were frozen by the Bank of England.
Also, the Scotland Yard believes that one of those arrested is al-Qaida leader in Britain and has been acting as a suspected hub in a network of extremist groups, including Kashmiri and north African groups based here, The Sunday Times reported but could not name the suspect due to legal reasons.
Quoting Home Office officials, it said one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bomb the US-bound flights, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years.
They believe that he was instrumental in sending the ringleader of at least one previous British terror plot for training at a camp in Pakistan last year.
He is described by counter-terrorist officials at Mi5, the British intelligence service, as the senior figure in a British terror network involving Kashmiri, north African and Iraqi cells.
The investigation into the suspected al-Qaida leader in Britain and his British associates was considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, Mi5's Director-General, to be the security service's single most important line of inquiry.
Islamabad: Pakistani officials have said that an intercept of a telephone call made by British national Rashid Rauf from Karachi to his associates in Britain urging them to go ahead with attacks on US-bound jets at Heathrow played a crucial role in foiling the terror plot.
A senior security official said the call by Rauf from Karachi to his associates in the UK prompted officials to arrest him and inform the UK authorities of the daredevil plan.
“This telephone call intercept in Karachi and the arrest of Rashid Rauf helped a lot to foil the terror plan,” The Dawn quoted a senior security official as saying.
Rauf, a 26-year-old Briton of Pakistani origin, was arrested from Zhob in Balochistan and apparently had connections with terrorist groups in Pakistan, including the Al-Qaida.
A Pakistani security official said Rashid used to frequently send text messages to Britain.
The officials said Rauf, who used the alias Matiur Rehman, had “an indication of Afghanistan-based Al-Qaida connections”, and the authorities were now closely examining his links to Afghan jihadi groups.
According to Sun, the Birmingham-born Rauf dubbed Mr Talibrum by the English press was also a commander in the terrorist group who organised the training of seven British suicide bombers who had planned to blow up midair, using chemical bombs, the transatlantic jets to the US.
His brother Tayib, 22, was on the list of 19 suspects alleged to have been involved in the plot, who here held by British authorities in Birmingham following raids across England after the foiled bomb attack.
The official further said Rauf’s interrogation revealed information that was not even in the knowledge of the US and British intelligence.
— PTI, ANI
