Pak withholds UK terror suspects’ info

Two weeks after an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners was thwarted in Britain, Pakistani authorities have tightened the faucet that had trickled details from their investigation.

Two weeks after an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners was thwarted in Britain, Pakistani authorities have tightened the faucet that had trickled details from their investigation.

Mystery surrounds the role played by “key suspect” Rashid Rauf, a Briton with dual Pakistani nationality who has family ties to a notorious Pakistani militant. Pakistani authorities allege Rauf communicated between an al-Qaeda mastermind in Afghanistan and the plotters in Britain.

Britain has yet to confirm al-Qaeda’s involvement in the plans to bomb as many as 10 US-bound aircraft. The Home Office in London refused to say on Thursday whether it was still seeking Rashid Rauf’s extradition.

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Rauf is the only one among the at least seven suspects arrested in Pakistan to have been named. He is being interrogated at Rawalpindi.

A senior Pakistani government official said that there was as yet no established link with Pakistani militant groups to the plot. To many observers in Pakistan that stretches credibility, and could explain authorities’ reluctance to divulge more details about the other suspects, even their nationalities.

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