Two Britons of Pakistani descent arrested in 'Bojinka-II'

London/Islamabad, Aug 11 (UNI) Yesterday's abortive terror plot to blow up transatlantic aircraft, which could be as devastating as the September 11 attacks on the US, also has a Pakistani angle to it.

Islamabad claimed it had played ''a very important role'' in uncovering the plot and said the terrorist designs were foiled only due to the sharing of closely guarded intelligence with the United Kingdom and the United States.

Two Britons of Pakistani origin were arrested in Lahore and Karachi respectively in a closely coordinated intelligence swoop. An unspecified number of British nationals, believed to be Muslims were also arrested.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson said cooperation in this particular case was spread over a period of time, adding that there were some arrests in Pakistan, which were coordinated with arrests in the UK.

The plot bears similarities to the September 11, 2001 hijackings of US airliners for the attacks on New York and Washington and ''Operation Bojinka'', to blow up passenger planes over the Pacific Ocean in 1995.

These conspiracies were hatched by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the al-Qaeda operations planner, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003.

Also, at least two of the British Muslims involved in the bomb attacks on London underground trains and a bus, in which 52 people were killed, in July last year had visited Pakistan months earlier.

The operation to foil the plot, now becoming known as 'Bojinka' began with MI5 officers keeping a close watch on a group of about 1000 suspects, in London who were sympathetic towards al-Qaeda.

Most of the suspects arrested are of Pakistani descent and include women. The Metropolitan Police's anti-terror branch was alerted about the plans in December. MI6 became involved and contacted a dozen counter-intelligence agencies in the US, Pakistan, north African countries and Germany, for information and checks on the suspects.

Based on the infomation gathered from different sources, profile of a pro-al Qaeda group with links to Pakistan and North America was established. The members of the highly motivated group had made several visits to Pakistan.

UNI TEAM YA AT HT1725