Detained Briton 'had telephone links with bombers'

A Briton said to have been held in Pakistan over the London terror attacks had telephone links with two of the suicide bombers, it was reported today.

Haroon Rashid Aswat is thought to have been brought up in Dewsbury, the same area of West Yorkshire as Mohammad Sidique Khan.

Reports yesterday quoted intelligence sources as saying that Aswat had been arrested in Pakistan, but this was denied by Pakistani officials.

Security sources told newspapers the alleged al-Qaida planner had up to 20 conversations with Khan and another of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, one just hours before the blasts.

The Daily Mail said he entered the UK through Felixstowe, Suffolk, two weeks before the attacks, and left on a flight from Heathrow hours before the carnage.

Newspapers said he was arrested in a raid at a religious school, or madrassa, in Sargodha, wearing an explosive belt and carrying thousands of pounds in cash.

The Times said he was thought to have stayed at the madrassa with two of the suicide bombers.

A senior Pakistani source told the newspaper: “We believe this man had a crucial part to play in what happened in London.”

The Mail said he was flown to Islamabad by helicopter, where he was expected to be questioned by MI6 officers.

The Times said Aswat was believed to have had a ten-year association with militant groups, and met Osama bin Laden at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan.

The newspaper said it had obtained FBI documents indicating he was sent to America in 1999 where he had firearms and poison training.

The father of a man from Batley, West Yorks, who shares the name Haroon Rashid Aswat, said he had not seen him for years.

Rashid Aswat told The Times: “He was a very angry young man.”

But he said he had shown no signs of any extremist views.

An unnamed brother of the 30-year-old told the Yorkshire Post that Haroon had moved to London 10 years ago and the family had not seen him since.