Pakistani charity denies funding plot to bomb jets

An Islamic charity in Pakistan today denied providing funds to suspects in a plot to bomb several US-bound passenger jets from Britain, saying it had no links with the alleged conspirators.

Jamaat al-Dawat’s reaction came after the New York Times today reported that British and Pakistani investigators were trying to determine whether money the charity had raised for victims of an earthquake in Pakistan last year was given to alleged British plotters.

“This is a bogus story,” said Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for the group. “It has nothing to do with reality. The people who are being arrested in this connection have no link with Jamaat al-Dawat.”

Jamaat al-Dawat is a hardline Islamic group that also does charitable work. It provided medical aid and set up relief camps for homeless victims of the October 8 quake that killed more than 80,000 people in Pakistan’s north-west and its portion of Kashmir.

It was proclaimed to be a terrorist organisation by the US in May for its links to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, an outlawed Islamic militant group fighting security forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.