London plot contact settled in Pak

Washington: Pakistan has confirmed that the main figure arrested in the London bombing plot, Rashid Rauf, had settled in Bahawalpur, a southern Punjab town that is home to banned organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, the New York Times reported.

While Pakistani officials said he used to be at least an active member of the bannned organisation, the American daily in a report from Islamabad cited unnamed members of Jaish-e-Mohammed to suggest Rauf had stayed a member of the group throughout its reincarnations.

Rauf, a British citizen born in Pakistan, returned from Britain in 2002 to settle in Bahawalpur.

Another report in the New York Times from Bahawalpur quoted Hafiz Allah Bukhsh, the father of the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, as saying Rauf was married to a sister of one of his younger sons' wife.

A former Pakistani official with close ties to intelligence agencies confirmed the details and said Rauf had "longstanding links with Jaish-e-Mohammed and also had al Qaeda connections, the daily said.

"Rauf became a central figure in all this," the New York Times quoted a senior Pakistan government official as saying.

Rauf came to the notice of British investigators who traced telephone calls between him and people in Britain who were under surveillance, the official said.

"There were frequent calls from there and to him," the official said, adding that the British had asked Pakistan to watch Rauf, who had been under surveillance for a few weeks.

A senior Qaeda agent still at large was the mastermind of the plot and Rauf was the main contact for the would-be bombers in Britain, said the official, according to the daily.

Pakistani officials have implied that the Qaeda figure is based in Afghanistan, but the official said he was not Afghan, adding that all the group's top leaders were from Arab countries.

He also said a third country was connected because of the financial trail.

Rauf, reportedly 29 years old, was born in Pakistan and lived nearly all his life in England, until 2002, when he returned to Pakistan after having been implicated in the stabbing death of an uncle in Britain, the official said. Rauf was arrested in Bahawalpur, the official added.

His connection to Jaish-e-Mohammed would explain much about any involvement with the bombing plot or al Qaeda, the Times said.