Lashkar is probed for diverting quake relief to air plot

The probe into the role of the Lashkar-e-Toiba8217;s front comes at a time when the authorities are questioning Jaish-e-Mohammed affiliate Rashid Rauf, a British national who was arrested in Pakistan8217;s Bahawalpur hours before the authorities began a series of raids across Britain to break up the plot. Rauf appears to be a crucial player in the plot.

British and Pakistani investigators are looking into the possibility that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa passed the earthquake donations raised in British mosques to the plotters, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

One former Pakistani official close to the intelligence officials there said Jamaat-ud-Dawa provided the money that was to be used to buy plane tickets for the suspects to conduct a practice run as well as the attacks themselves. The money is believed to have come directly from the group8217;s network in Britain and was not sent from Pakistan.

8220;The Pakistanis have been asked by the British to examine the links between Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the suspects in the airplane attack,8221; the former Pakistani official said.

According to a former British security official familiar with the investigation, some of the money raised in British mosques also went to the group8217;s militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir. On Sunday, a senior American law enforcement official said that the British police and intelligence officials had identified several suspected accomplices of the plotters who were believed to have provided support for the plot outside Britain. The new suspects were identified by checking the arrested men8217;s computers, the official said.

After the earthquake, which killed some 73,000 people, Jamaat-ud-Dawa raised funds in British Pakistani areas in London, Birmingham and Manchester. The group also urged British people of Pakistani origin to go to the region to help in the relief efforts, and hundreds did.

Several of the 23 suspects still in custody after the arrests by British police on Thursday8212;most of them Britons of Pakistani descent8212;travelled to Pakistan last year, ostensibly to help with earthquake relief efforts, said Nasir Ahmed, a leader among Britain8217;s Pakistanis and a member of the House of Lords.

Ahmed said he was not sure how many of the suspects rounded up last week had gone to Kashmir to help, but among those who had gone were the suspects arrested in High Wycombe, west of London. The former Pakistani official said several of the suspects had gone to Pakistan at the time of the earthquake. The official declined to say whether the suspects were believed to have been organizers or people who had provided support, like passports and safe houses.

Ahmed said it was possible that those who went came into contact with the militant Islamic organizations that were doing the relief work in PoK where most of the casualties were. Indeed, at the time, Jamaat-ud-Dawa was welcomed by people in the area for stepping in where the Pakistani government had failed. The group was praised as one of the few providing aid efficiently, while Muslims around the world complained that Pakistanis had been abandoned.

8220;In the first few days, it was only religious organizations, the militant organizations, that were prepared to dig out people and provide relief supplies,8221; Ahmed said. 8220;It is possible that young people, many people, who have gone from UK, may have fallen into hands of organizations like Jamaat-ud-Dawa.8221;

8211;DEXTER FILKINS 038; SOUAD MEKHENNET