Man linked with London bombings held in Pakistan
An "important" suspect in the London attacks is under arrest, a Pakistani official said today, as investigators used telephone numbers provided by Britain to determine who may have had contact with the suicide bombers.
"We have an important man in our custody," a senior intelligence official said. "He has some direct links with the London attacks."
The official, speaking in the eastern city of Lahore, would not name the man, say when he was arrested or elaborate on his alleged links with the July 7 London bombings that killed 56 people and injured 700 on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus.
The official did not want to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media and due to the secretive nature of his job.
"We have apprehended several suspects," said Lahore Police Chief Tariq Salim. "More arrests are in the offing."
Many militant groups operate clandestine offices in Lahore, which is near the Indian border.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the British-born bombers, three of whom were of Pakistani origin and travelled to Pakistan last year, received training or other help from extremists in Pakistan.
Two intelligence officials in the capital, Islamabad, said today that British authorities had asked their Pakistani counterparts to check about 100 Pakistani telephone numbers for possible links to the suicide bombers.
Authorities had concluded that nearly 80 numbers did not provide information useful to the case, said the senior official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of his work.
The remaining 20 numbers, which included both fixed lines and mobile telephones, were under investigation, the official said. Some were no longer in use, and authorities were trying to establish who had originally registered them.
The officials said Britain also provided names of several people in Pakistan who allegedly received calls from the suicide bombers over the past year.
On Sunday, Pakistani authorities said they questioned a businessman whose mobile telephone number was listed on the phone records of one of the alleged bombers.
The businessman, questioned near the city of Sialkot north of Lahore, was not taken into custody. Officials, who did not identify him, said he told them that he had many business contacts in Britain.
Authorities earlier said they were holding at least seven people suspected of links to the London bombers. About 200 other suspected militants have been detained across Pakistan in the past two days, following a pledge by President Gen Pervez Musharraf to curb religious extremism and amid international concern that Islamic schools in Pakistan promote militancy.
Security officials believe one of the London bombers - 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer - spent a few days at a religious school in Lahore.
About 50 religious activists demonstrated peacefully in Islamabad today against police raids on mosques and Islamic schools.
The vast majority of those detained are not believed to have any ties to the London bombers.
Police cast a wide net, arresting people in Islamabad, eastern Punjab province, the North West Frontier province and the western city of Quetta, as well as the southern province of Sindh and its capital, Karachi.
Authorities seized audio cassettes, as well as audio and video compact discs containing militant material.
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