Brit nationals trained jointly in Pak terror camps before 7/7

British-born Pakistanis trained together in terror camps in Northern Pakistan prior to carrying out terror attacks like 7/7or running terror cells in Britain, claims a Daily Mail report.

London, May 1 : British-born Pakistanis trained together in terror camps in Northern Pakistan prior to carrying out terror attacks like 7/7or running terror cells in Britain, claims a Daily Mail report.

According to the report, British-born Pakistanis like Mohammad Sidique Khan, the Yorkshire teacher and leader of the four July 7 suicide bombers, or Omar Khyam, a key member of the terror cell convicted at the Old Bailey recently, acquired their terror skills on the banks of the Swat river and in the in the foothills of the Hindukush mountains that lie on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2003.

Both eventually led Al Qaeda-linked terror cells that created mayhem in British streets.

Mohammad Sidique Khan's attack on July 7, 2005 claimed 52 innocent lives on the London transport system.

Omar Khyam was fortunately picke up and convicted before he could carry out his violent act, says the paper.

Both Khan and Khyam travelled to Pakistan in July 2003, and trained with other young radical Britons in how to make bombs, fire Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades, and use the poison ricin.

Over that summer, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood and Salahuddin Amin, other members of the socalled "Crevice cell", attended camps with Khyam. Waheed and Amin had moved to Pakistan by this stage and the terrorist cell began to come together in Lahore, through the Al Muhajiroun organisation founded in Britain by preacher of hate Omar Bakri.

The Pakistani authorities say they passed on details to Britain of 11 men staying at or linked to the hostel that summer who they believed were associated with "bad things".

Their assessment was that they did not pose a danger to Pakistan and so they chose not to arrest them.

A timesonline report also endorses the Daily Mail report by describing British Islamist terrorists as a "band of fanatics who are often known to one another and have sometimes trained or been indoctrinated together".

It further goes on to say that some of them were skilled in anti-surveillance techniques, and their numbers were such that it was impossible for counter-terrorist agencies to keep track of them all.

If this causes shock, that is because there is a lack of understanding in Britain of the nature and scale of the terrorist threat, timesonline says.

It says that men such as Mohammed Sidique Khan and Omar Khyam were part of a network of Islamists who carried their religious radicalism into terrorism.

The report says that the tightly controlled al-Qaeda structure that existed before 9/11 was damaged by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. But al-Qaeda has rebuilt itself in the tribal areas of Pakistan, spread its organisation to Iraq and is not in the state of disarray that many agencies claimed a year or two ago.

Two thousand people are estimated to be involved in al-Qaeda activity in Britain. Khan had connections and associations dating back at least to 1999 (long before 9/11 or the invasion of Iraq).

There is no doubt that mistakes were made by MI5 and others, which allowed him to remain free to commit the outrages of 7/7. Equally, there is little doubt that, despite greater resources and tougher legislation, another bomber will slip through the net, raising fears that the Al-Qaeda will strike again.

ANI