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London bombers visited Karachi
18/07/2005 16:34 - (SA)
Zarar Khan
London bombers visited Pakistan in '04
London - Three of the four suspected suicide bombers in the July 7
attacks in London travelled to Karachi in southern Pakistan in 2004, but the purpose of their visits was unclear, an immigration
official said on Monday.
Shahid Hayyat, a deputy director at the federal investigation
agency, said one of the men arrived in Karachi in July 2004, and
immigration officials were unclear on the details of his departure.
Two other men arrived in the same city on November 19 and returned to
London in February, according to Hayyat.
The three men were Britons of Pakistani origin, and authorities
are trying to determine whether extremists in Pakistan provided
them with training or other assistance in the London attacks that
killed 55 people and injured 700 others. The four attackers blew
themselves up on three underground trains and on a double-decker
bus, according to investigators.
Hayyat said suspect Hasib Hussain, 18, arrived a year ago aboard
a Saudi airliner. Two other suspects, 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer
and 30-year-old Mohammed Saddiq Khan, arrived in Karachi in
November aboard a Turkish Airlines flight.
Hayyat had no comment on what the men did during their visit,
nor where they travelled.
"I have no such information, but I know that our security
agencies are trying to get such details," he said.
Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesperson, Jalil Abbas Jilani, said
at a weekly news conference on Monday that he could not confirm
reports that the three men visited Pakistan last year.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said Tanweer briefly
stayed at a religious school and met with a member of an outlawed
domestic militant group. Pakistan has said that it is extending
full support to Britain in its efforts to trace those linked to the
attacks in London.
The disclosure by Hayyat came a day after a Pakistani
intelligence official involved in the investigation said
authorities questioned a businessman whose cellphone number
was listed on the phone records of one of the alleged London
suicide bombers. The official requested anonymity.
The businessman, who has not been identified, was not taken into
custody, according to the official. The official said the
businessman was questioned near the eastern city of Sialkot on
Sunday, and told intelligence officials that he had many business
contacts in England.
The fourth bombing suspect has been identified as Jamaican-born
Briton Lindsey Germaine. - Sapa-AP
- AP
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