Suspects arrested in anti-terror raids earlier this week had been planning to attack UK airports including Heathrow, the UK's main air hub, several newspapers reported yesterday.
Several published reports said one of the 12 suspects, variously identified as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al-Hindi, was believed to be a senior member of al-Qaeda.
Metropolitan Police refused to say whether al-Hindi was among those arrested.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan told reporters that they found images of Heathrow and other sites on the computers of two arrested al-Qaeda fugitives, and that this information was passed to UK officials.
It was not clear, however, if the information helped lead to the arrests of 12 suspected terrorists earlier this week in the UK.
The reports said al-Hindi, using the codename Bilal, had been in contact with Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert arrested in Pakistan last month for alleged links to extremists.
Police arrested 13 young men in a series of raids across the UK on Tuesday, but have said nothing officially about what they were suspected of doing.
One man was released on Wednesday, while police continued to question the others at a high-security police station in west London.
London's Metropolitan Police has said the arrests were part of "continuing and extensive inquiries by police and the Security Service into alleged international terrorism."
Officials have refused to say whether the raids were linked to information Pakistani authorities recently said they had uncovered about threats to the UK and US.
Maps, photographs and other details of possible targets in the US and UK were found on computers belonging to Khan and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian indicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa, said two Pakistani officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Lahore-based intelligence official involved in the investigation following the July 13 arrest of Khan said his computer contained photographs of Heathrow as well as pictures of underpasses beneath several buildings in London.
Both officials said they were unaware of any information from Khan that led directly to Tuesday's arrests in the UK.
The Times quoted an unidentified Pakistani intelligence official as saying that al-Hindi was believed to have been in the final stages of planning an attack on Heathrow.
Detailed maps of Heathrow were found on Khan's computer, The Times said.
Al-Hindi, "a senior al-Qaeda man," was arrested after information was received from Pakistani intelligence agencies, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting an unidentified Pakistani official.
Al-Hindi was "planning some sort of operation in Britain," the official told the paper.
The Times of London reported that Khan had sent scores of encrypted messages -- including outline plans for an attack on Heathrow -- to al-Hindi.
The paper also quoted an unidentified senior Metropolitan Police official as saying that one of the men arrested on Tuesday was a "significant figure," but didn't specify whether it was al-Hindi.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS