Special report: Major UK air terror plot thwarted
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- A British-based Islamic charity organization remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in December last year helping them and their organizations carry out the aircraft bombing plan in the United Kingdom, local newspaper Daily Times reported on Saturday.
An investigation carried out by Daily Times showed that Muslim Charity of United Kingdom remitted not so long ago a huge amount of money under the head of "earthquake relief" to the accounts of three individuals in three different banks - Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd.
One of these banks is based in UK and has its presence in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir because of a large number of British citizens of Kashmir origin in UK. The money was transferred from UK to banks in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir through Barclays Public Limited Company.
Two of the recipients of the transaction are British citizens of Kashmir origin while the third is an Islamabad-based builder, also of Kashmir origin. They were arrested in the last two weeks at three different places in Pakistan.
One of them was arrested in Pakistan's southwest port city Karachi, the "builder" was arrested in Islamabad while the place of the arrest of the third suspect is still not known. There are no details available about these three suspects with regard to their links with organizations such as al-Qaida or Lashkar-e-Taibaor both, the report said.
Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) investigators were apparently tipped off by the British authorities about the fund transfers and asked to investigate.
Following their arrests, the three suspects revealed some key elements of the aircraft bombing plan during interrogations by various agency personnel, who were also aided by at least one expert specializing in money laundering, the report said.
Pakistani and British investigators were able to discover how operatives at both ends had raised and moved their funds around.
According to the UK's National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU), a huge amount of money had been transferred from Britain to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for quake relief efforts two months after the quake caused devastation.
"Neither the amount nor the purpose for which money was sent caused any concern in the British investigation unit," a senior official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"What raised alarm among British sleuths specializing in finances was the fact that the entire money was remitted to three individuals, not to any organization or organizations involved in the relief work," he said.
The official, who refused to disclose the amount, however said that the entire transaction was in pound sterling. "It is up to you to deduce. What I can say is that it was a huge amount. Had it not been gone into the accounts of individual, nobody would have been bothered," he said.
A senior Pakistani banker said on condition of anonymity that the UK has had extensive experience of tracking, disrupting and undermining the finances of terrorist networks and continues to develop new ways in which such targeting and disruption can be effectively achieved.
In this case, the UK Unit's expertise provided immense guidance to Pakistani sleuths to uncover the plot, he added.
Another senior official said that the Pakistani agencies have in recent months been able to effect significant seizures of terrorist cash and identify and disrupt terrorist fundraising activity.
According to him, all banks, including multinationals, and financial institutions have been cooperating fully in tracing sources of terrorist funding since September 11, 2001.
"This was mainly due to the cooperation of the three banks through which money was transferred to these suspects," the official said. He also attributed the success of the case to increased integration between key bodies involved, ranging from government, law enforcement and regulatory bodies both at home and abroad. Enditem
