Pakistan questions Briton on bombings

Security officials in Pakistan were on Thursday questioning a British man arrested on suspicion of playing a key role in the 7/7 bombings in which 56 people died.

Haroon Rashid Aswat was carrying a belt packed with explosives, a British passport and a substantial amount of cash when he was seized, according to intelligence sources in the country.

His name is understood to have been passed to Pakistan’s security agency, Inter Services Intelligence, by British authorities after it emerged after an examination of the cellphones used by the four bombers.

The arrested man is thought to have been born in Dewsbury and grown up in Batley, West Yorkshire, a short distance from the three suicide bombers who were from Leeds, and the fourth, who grew up in Huddersfield. Counter-terrorism officials in the UK said they believed the detainee and a 30-year-old from Yorkshire, who has the same name, are probably the same person.

The Briton being questioned in Pakistan was also hunted by the FBI for several years after he allegedly travelled from London to Oregon in November 1999 in an attempt to establish an al-Qaeda training camp. That search was scaled down, however, after the agency heard that he had been killed while fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was unclear whether Aswat was also the name used by the so-called ”fifth man”, a known al-Qaeda suspect who was reported to have slipped into the United Kingdom through an east coast seaport several weeks before the attacks, but who was not placed under surveillance and flew out on July 6.

UK counter-terrorism officials said they were ”interested” in the British detainee, but added that there was no firm evidence to link him to the blasts on three tube trains and a bus two weeks ago.

Aswat was being held for questioning in Islamabad on Thursday night after being flown by helicopter from the small town of Sargodha, about 180km west of Lahore, where he was arrested four days ago. He is expected to also be questioned by British intelligence officials based in the city.

A second Briton, Zeeshan Siddiqui (24) from Hounslow, west London, is also being questioned in Pakistan about an alleged plot to bomb targets in the UK. Siddiqui, who was arrested in Peshawar on May 18, was a close schoolfriend of Asif Hanif, also from Hounslow, who killed himself and three other people in a suicide bomb attack on a bar in Tel Aviv in April 2003.

Police had rounded up about 200 men in raids on mosques and madrasas within 24 hours of Tony Blair saying he was anxious to see Pakistan crack down on militant teaching in religious schools.

Some were being questioned about possible links with the three suicide bombers from Leeds — Mohammad Sidique Khan (30) Shehzad Tanweer (22) and Hasib Hussain (18) — whose families originated in Pakistan, and who are known to have travelled there late last year.

Several security sources in the country, who did not wish to be named, said Aswat had been arrested when police first began rounding up suspected militants. ”We have arrested Haroon Rashid in Sargodha three days ago,” said one security official.

Pakistan’s interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, and information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, on Thursday denied the arrest. Intelligence sources insisted, however, that Aswat had been detained. One source close to the investigation told The Guardian that he had links with Jaish-i-Muhammad, one of four major Islamist groups active in the country. Other sources say that he is linked to al-Qaeda.

As well as the belt packed with explosives and the British passport, Aswat was said by one of the security officials to be in possession of around 1-million rupees (£9 650).

The name Haroon Rashid Aswat came to the attention of security services around the world after a man by that name allegedly attempted to establish an al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon almost six years ago.

According to documents lodged with a federal court in New York, he was one of two men who travelled from London to assist a local man, James Ujaama, in setting up a ”jihad training camp” near the town of Bly. After his arrest, Ujaama (39) a convert to Islam previously known as James Ernest Thompson, cooperated with the FBI and was jailed for two years after he admitted providing aid to the Taliban.

The FBI is understood to have believed Aswat was killed while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but has continued searching for Oussama Kassir, a resident of Sweden, who is said to have been the second man who travelled from London.

In Batley, relatives of the man believed to have been arrested in Pakistan said on Thursday that they had barely seen him over the past 10 years and had no idea where he was.

Haroon Rashid Aswat was the third of the 10 children of Rashid Aswat, an engineering worker, and his wife Sara, both Muslims born in India, who have lived in Yorkshire for several decades.

Standing at the door of the family’s home, one brother, who would not give his name, said: ”When he used to come, we just talked to him as a family member. From what I can conclude, maybe he didn’t want us to know what he was doing or where he was living.”