London bombers were trained by the Lashkar-e-Toiba

Attacker 'was recruited' at terror group's religious school

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT

ONE of the suicide bombers who struck in London was probably recruited when he attended a religious school in Pakistan with strong links to al-Qaeda and its south-east Asian offshoot, Jemaah Islamiyyah, The Scotsman can reveal.

Security sources in Pakistan are investigating a tip-off that Shehzad Tanweer attended a religious school run by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) during a recent visit to the country. The group's founder has publicly stated that he believes suicide bombing to be the "best form of jihad [holy war]".

The revelation came as Pakistan claimed that it helped thwart a terrorist attack in Britain before the May general election, and that its intervention led to arrests in several countries. However, Pakistani authorities refused to comment on reports that the UK was seeking access to Zeeshan Siddiqu, a 25-year-old British national arrested in May near Peshawar.

Yesterday, British police and security services were concentrating their efforts on tracing the man who masterminded the attacks. They now know the identity of all four bombers but are understood to be looking for a fifth man who appears on the CCTV footage from King's Cross. His picture has been distributed to police in London.

There was also a fresh warning from Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, that a "large number" of people in Britain had been through radical camps abroad.

The family of Shehzad Tanweer - whose bomb killed six people on a Circle Line train to Aldgate last Thursday - were yesterday said to have been "left shattered" by the news that the 22-year-old was a suicide bomber. His uncle, Bashir Ahmed, 65, said his nephew went to Lahore in Pakistan for two months earlier this year to study religion, but was "proud to be British".

Pakistani investigators suspect that Tanweer attended one of the many madrassas, or religious schools, run by LeT, which is based in Lahore. The group, which also operates under the name Jamaat ud-Daawa (the party of preaching), has close ties with al-Qaeda and access to munitions and safe houses.

Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda lieutenant, was seized in an LeT safe house in Faisalabad in March 2002. The group has also been linked with Hamas and Jemaah Islamiyyah, and Indian security forces believe it is playing a significant role in channelling militants into Iraq.

Most of its membership of several thousand have been through madrassas in Pakistan, and many are familiar with the use of explosives. The group maintains links with other terrorist networks and it is known to solicit donations from the Pakistani community in the UK through its charitable wing.

LeT was founded by Hafiz Saeed, a former professor at Lahore's University of Engineering Technology. In April 2003, he defended the use of suicide bombing, saying: "Suicide missions are in accordance with Islam. In fact, a suicide attack is the best form of jihad.

"Jihad is prescribed in the Quran. Muslims are required to take up arms against the oppressor. The powerful western world is terrorising the Muslims. We are being invaded, humiliated, manipulated, and looted. How else can we respond but through jihad?"

The group runs a number of madrassas, including the Darasitul Islamia madrassa, where six Malaysian students were arrested in 2003 on suspicion of training for Jemaah Islamiyyah activities in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Saeed was delivering a sermon at the madrassa on the day of the arrests.

Meanwhile, the biggest concern for police and the security services is that the bombers could have been acting on the orders of an al-Qaeda mastermind and that there may be another bomb team waiting to strike. The Home Secretary said the security services were checking telephone records to establish whether the bombers were part of a larger organisation.