Wednesday, July 13 2005 16:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is investigating a British national of the Pakistani origin, Zeeshan Siddique, with known links to al-Qaeda and militants active in the United Kingdom who may provide important lead to the deadly blasts in London on Tuesday (July 12, 2005)

Zeeshan Siddique, 25, from Heston Hounslow, Theville, London , was picked up from Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan 's North Western Frontier Province, in May 2005 and had initially identified himself as Shehzad from Madina Colony, Hyderabad. As the identity turned out to be fake, he was grilled. In subsequent interrogation, he revealed he was a British national and wanted by the British intelligence agencies for involvement in a failed plot to bomb several pubs, restaurants and rail stations in London.

The Pakistani intelligence agents have already been approached by their British counterparts following the London blasts. The sources here say the investigators are focusing on a note in which Zeeshan Siddique states that one of his comrades was unwilling to proceed further while another had informed him that 'wagon' had now been called off. The reference to 'wagon' prompted security officials to take a fresh look at the whole case with particular reference to the bombings in London that has left scores of people dead and hundreds others wounded. "It is still premature to say anything. But we believe that the guy is holding back a lot of information," said one investigator.

The sources informed that during the course of initial interrogation, the suspect had blamed Junaid Babar and Omar Khayyam for falsely implicating him in the foiled bombing plot in London. Junaid Babar, 30, a naturalised Pakistani-American from Queens , New York, was arrested in April 2004 by a raiding party of the New York Police Department and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force while he was on way to a taxi driving school in Long Island.

Al-Qaeda links in US

Junaid Babar, who had first caught the FBI attention after his anti-US interview to a Western television channel in Pakistan following the 9/11 attacks, had already admitted before a federal judge in New York of being an al-Qaeda sleeper in the United States. He also owned up to smuggling money and military supplies to a senior al-Qaeda member in Pakistan, setting up a militant trainingt camp in South Waziristan and assisting in a bombing plot in the United Kingdom. Junaid Babar had not only admitted to having visited Shakai, hitherto a bastion of the fugitive al-Qaeda militants in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan on the Pak-Afghan borders, but also having met Zeeshan Siddique there. Babar, who had left a $70,000 a year computer job to take part in the 'jehad' in Afghanistan , and was said to be cooperating with American investigators, had identified Zeeshan Siddique as one of the people involved in the bombing plot.

After the arrest of Junaid Babar and his disclosure about the bombing plot that the British security agencies arrested eight British Muslims of Pakistani origin in a major swoop in August 2004. The raids code-named 'Operation Crevice' led to the recovery of more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate, the type of fertilizer used in home-made bombs and five of the eight arrested were charged with terrorist offences. All those arrested were Asians. Among them was the 23-year-old Omar Khayam whom Siddique has accused of falsely implicating him in the failed bombing plot.

Al Muhajiroun - a radical Muslim group in England

It is still unclear whether like Junaid Babar and the five other accused in the UK, Zeeshan Siddique too belonged to Al Muhajiroun - a radical Muslim group in England led by Omar Barkri Muhammad. But interrogators say they have evidence that contact numbers recovered from Siddique clearly link him to al-Qaeda operatives and those associated with 'Operation Crevice'.

The suspect is believed to have met at least one senior al-Qaeda operative, Hadi Al-Iraqi, in Shakai in South Waziristan before the Pakistan Army moved in to dismantle what it later said served as a base for al-Qaeda. Al-Muhajiroun had in the past denied any relationship with Junaid Babar or engaging in any military operation in Western countries.

Zeeshan Siddique who claimed to have done graduation in Economics from a university in London, told interrogators he had met Junaid in a UK mosque and later met him again in Lahore (the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province) where he stayed with him for over two months. Investigators have recovered a CD from the suspect's possession that had programmes regarding circuit works, aeronautical mapping and digital simulation. The arrest of Junaid Babar was followed by arrests of Salahuddin Amin alias Gullu and Abu Munthar Al-Maghribi in Pakistan and Issa Al Hindi in the UK .

Moreover, a letter recovered from Siddique spoke of the arrest of Abu Munthar. "The brother he went with appears to have been arrested and we suggest that you cut off all contacts," the official said, quoting from the letter. The sources said the American and British security agencies were taking keen interest in Siddique and appear to have a great deal of information about him. Lately, they say, the British have been requesting for his immediate deportation. Up to now, Siddique has been successfully thwarting interrogation by working himself into fits, thereby denying any opportunity to his interrogators to speak to him. But officials say he may be the missing link in the whole plot.