Pakistan holds seven linked to London bombers

POLICE in Pakistan said yesterday they were holding seven Islamic militants with possible links to the suspects in the London suicide bombings, as a probe into the suspected ties focused on the city of Lahore.

Authorities said they had also detained another 52 people suspected of links to militants as part of a nationwide sweep.

Security officials believe one of the bombers spent time at a seminary in Lahore, where many militant groups have clandestine operations.

Lahore police chief Tariq Saleem, said: "We are holding a few militants who are suspected of having links to the London suicide bombers."

The news of detentions in Lahore came a day after a senior immigration official said three of the four suspected London bombers travelled last year to the city of Karachi. All three were Britons of Pakistani origin.

Pakistani intelligence officials have said that Shahzad Tanweer met Osama Nazir a Pakistani arrested in November 2004 for helping plan a 2002 grenade attack on an Islamabad church that killed five people, including two Americans.

Nazir, a Jaish-e-Mohammed member, told officials he met Tanweer last year in Faisalabad, south-west of Lahore. It was not clear what they discussed.

Pakistani immigration officials have said suspected bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, arrived in Karachi on July 15, 2004. It was not clear when he left the country.

Two other suspects 22-year-old Tanweer and 30-year-old Mohammed Sadiq Khan arrived in the city on November 19 and returned to London in February 2005.

Other police sources said that the seven detained men were from two outlawed militant groups, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Both are al-Qaida-linked, and some of their supporters have been arrested for trying to assassinate Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf.

Israeli press reports have also linked Khan to a 2003 suicide bombing carried out by two Britons.

A local newspaper said Khan is suspected of helping to plot the attack on Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv on April 30 which killed three Israelis.

It said Khan had visited Israel two months previously.

Five of the detained men were picked up in Punjab province in recent days, and two were caught Monday night in Sindh province, the officials said.

In London yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had spoken to Mr Musharraf about the need to address radicalism in religious schools.