Police in Lahore today said they were holding some Islamic militants who may have had links with the suspects in the London suicide bombings, as investigators try to assess whether extremists in Pakistan were involved in the July 7 attacks.

THREE of the four suspected suicide bombers in the July 7 attacks in London travelled to Karachi in southern Pakistan last year, an immigration official said yesterday, as authorities tried to determine whether extremists in Pakistan had aided the deadly attacks.

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 today.

Pakistani intelligence agents believe one of the London suicide bombers visited a religious school run by an al Qaida-linked terror group, two senior officials said today.

Authorities in Pakistan are looking into a connection between one of the London suicide bombers and two al-Qaida-linked militant groups there, including a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the US Embassy, two senior intelligence officials said today.