AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Pakistani authorities said they had made several arrests, including at least three people linked to Al-Qaeda, which helped Britain uncover a plot to blow up planes flying to the United States.
Foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam would not say how many were held but said the arrests by key US ally Pakistan were coordinated with the detention of 24 suspects in Britain.
“Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network. There were some arrests in Pakistan which were coordinated with arrests in the UK,” Aslam told AFP.
The arrests in Britain “followed active international cooperation between Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States,” she said, adding that “cooperation on this was spread over a period of time.”
A senior Pakistani security official said at least three people were arrested “who are linked to Al-Qaeda”, the terror network of Osama bin Laden blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The official had no further details of when or where they were seized.
Britain said early Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to wreak “mass murder on an unimaginable scale” by the simultaneous mid-air bombings of what reports said were up to nine planes.
Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said the 24 people arrested were mainly of Pakistani origin, while Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, from the Metropolitan Police, strongly hinted they were Islamists.
Another security source said intelligence agencies in Islamabad had provided key leads to Britain's secret service that enabled them to bust the plot.
“The actions that have been taken in London were made possible only with the close cooperation between Pakistani and British intelligence,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Pakistani intelligence cooperated and provided vital information that led to these actions.”
Al-Qaeda has already been fingered as a possible culprit behind the plot, with US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff saying the operation bore the hallmarks of the group.
Pakistan has arrested dozens of senior Al-Qaeda militants, including the capture three years ago of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks which used airliners as flying bombs.
Mohammed was also behind a foiled plan to blow up 12 US-bound passenger jets over the Pacific Ocean in 1995, called “Operation Bojinka”.
Pakistan came under the spotlight after the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks on the London transport system when it emerged that some of the British-born bombers had attended Islamic religious schools, or madrassas, here.
Military ruler President Pervez Musharraf launched a crackdown on extremist groups after the London blasts, which killed 56 people including the bombers, and ordered foreign madrassa students to leave.
