Pakistani linkOne of the London suicide bombers met a man in 2003 who was later arrested for a church bombing in Pakistan, an intelligence official said yesterday.
Meanwhile, security forces investigating connections with the London suicide bombings have detained four suspects in the central Pakistani city of Faisalabad.
Pakistani security agencies are investigating possible links between militant groups based in Pakistan and Shehzad Tanweer, a Briton of Pakistani origin who was one of four London bombers.
One of the groups being checked is Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad), linked to al-Qaeda and banned by Pakistan in 2002. The other group is Lashkar-e-Taiba which, like Jaish, has a record of fighting in Indian Kashmir but, unlike Jaish, has a reputation for tight discipline and is not known to have any operational ties with al-Qaeda.
One Pakistani intelligence source said Tanweer visited Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. During the first visit, the source said, Tanweer met Osama Nazir, arrested last December for the 2002 bombing of an Islamabad church that killed two Americans among others.
Nazir was a member of Jaish, and security agents called in Jaish supremo Maulana Azhar Masood on Thursday for questioning.
"So far, all leads are heading towards Jaish-e-Mohammad," an intelligence official said.
British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, now under sentence of death for the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, was also believed to be a member of Jaish.
Another intelligence official said Tanweer (22) had made a second visit to Pakistan in late 2004. He stayed in Lahore from December until last February, and visited several mosques and madrassahs (religious schools).
One madrassah was in Muridke, on the outskirts of Lahore, and home of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a hardline Islamic charity organisation made up of cadres of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf banned both Jaish and Lashkar, but they later resurfaced under new names.
Yesterday, after promising Tony Blair Pakistan's "fullest support and assistance" in the investigation in to the London bombings, Mr Musharraf ordered police chiefs to launch a new campaign against the radical Islamist groups.