Charities probed for links with UK airline bomb plot

ISLAMABAD, Aug 15 (Reuters) Investigations into a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in mid-air, foiled by British, Pakistani and US security agencies a week ago, have focused on the possible financing role played by Islamic charities.

Suspicion has fallen on two Pakistani charities said to be linked to banned militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad and its affiliate Jamaat-ul-Furqa, according to Pakistani intelligence officials who say a string of arrests were made in the past week.

In particular, authorities are investigating donations made from abroad ''We are looking into the activities of al-Rasheed Trust and al Asar Trust because there are some questions over whether they have been involved in money transfers from Britain to Pakistan during the earthquake relief effort, and whether the funds were subsequently forwarded to conspirators in the plot to blow up passenger planes,'' said a Pakistani intelligence official.

''Intelligence agencies arrested at least 17 people belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad from three districts of southern Punjab,'' he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Last Friday, the Pakistan government confirmed the arrest of seven people, including two British Muslims of Pakistani descent, and said one of the Britons, Rashid Rauf had links to al Qaeda.

Britain arrested 24 suspects last week, but the international investigation into the conspiracy began last year, and several plotters were tracked for some time.

Two key suspects being hunted in Pakistan were Matiur Rehman and Abdur Rehman, a wealthy British national of Afghan origin, both of whom are said to have al Qaeda pedigrees.

Abdur Rehman, who is in his fifties, is believed to have mentored and given orders to two of the the suicide bombers who carried the attacks on London's transport network in July last year, Pakistani intelligence sources said.

Rehman fought with mujahideen guerrillas against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, later recruited young Muslims in Western countries to fight in both Bosnia and Chechnya during the 1990s.

His namesake, Matiur Rehman, had links with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Pakistani Sunni Muslim sectarian militant group allied to al Qaeda, and is wanted for his role in an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf.

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