British airliners bombing plot: All roads lead to Pakistan India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

British investigators have revealed that a son of a Birmingham based baker having contacts with the Al-Qaeda, played a key role in planning the conspiracy to blow up at least seven airliners flying from Britain to different North American cities. As Scotland Yard tried to piece together the network of radicalized Islamists based in London and the lawless tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the arrest of Rashid Rauf, 25, made it clear that he played a key role in the conspiracy. According to The Independent, investigators believe that a series of coded emails were sent by the bomb plot ring leader, Abdulla Ali, and his associate, Assad Sarwar, to militant leaders in Pakistan.The mails were received and answered by Rauf, who officers believe was know by the codename 'Paps' or 'Papa'. They have also come to know that Sarwar was in charge of acquiring chemicals and equipment needed to make the liquid devices. Investigators confirmed that Sarwar travelled to Pakistan in June 2006 to learn how to boil down hydrogen peroxide safely, in order to produce a high concentration which could be used for making explosive material. Rauf has also been named as a possible 'facilitator' of the July 7, 2005 London terror attacks by MI5 and MI6. Rauf, a Briton and wanted in London for murder, was arrested in Pakistan in August 2006, but he later escaped from police custody in Rawalpindi in broad daylight just two weeks before the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. His escape also aborted an alleged plan said to be mutually agreed between Islamabad and London to exchange Rauf for two high-profile Baloch leaders wanted for allegedly waging war against the Pakistan army. The Baloch leaders seeking sanctuary in the UK were arrested for the exchange purpose but after Rauf's escape the court apparently released them for want of evidence.