London – As investigators Sunday explored international links to four British Muslims behind the July 7 suicide bombings of three subway trains and a double-decker bus, officials were preparing to introduce tough anti-terrorism legislation today that would make it a crime to incite, foster or glorify terrorism.
Six more arrests were reported in the northern city of Leeds, following the detention last week of one man who knew the alleged bombers. But police said there was no connection with the London bombings.
“At this stage, these arrests are not being linked to the events in London,” West Yorkshire Police said in a statement.
Police continued to comb through seven of 10 residences raided in Leeds and Aylesbury during the past week, searching for clues to the methods and motives behind the blasts, which killed at least 55 people, including the four bombers.
But the focus of the investigation moved from the former stomping grounds of the suspects to their reported connections with the global terrorism network directed by al-Qaeda.
At least eight people have been arrested in Pakistan in cities visited this year by Shahzad Tanweer, the 22-year-old cricket enthusiast who police say blew up a Circle Line train near the Aldgate Underground station in a coordinated rush-hour attack with at least three accomplices.
Pakistani intelligence officials have told journalists in Islamabad that Tanweer met with Osama Nazir, a member of the radical Jaish-e-Mohammed organization, during a 2003 visit to Faisalabad. At least four of those arrested in the wake of the London bombings were rounded up in that city.
Mohamed Sidique Khan, who reportedly bombed the Edgeware Road station, visited Islamic schools in Lahore and Faisalabad during a three-month visit that ended in February, British newspapers reported.
Reports that Khan, 30, had come under intelligence scrutiny more than a year ago have given rise to speculation – mostly in the media – that security forces might have missed opportunities to avert the deadliest attack on Britons since the blitz bombings of World War II.
News agencies in the Pakistani capital quoted unidentified intelligence sources as saying Tanweer and Khan arrived at the Karachi Airport together in November and then returned to Britain in early February.
An Egyptian who recently completed a doctorate in chemistry at Leeds University, home of three of the suicide bombers, remained in custody in Cairo for a third day. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said that it has no evidence tying 33-year-old Magdy el-Nashar to the London bombings but that officials held him for British interrogators who arrived in Cairo on Saturday.
Nashar rented the Leeds apartment where police found traces of explosives of the type used in the London bombings, as well as in other al-Qaeda-linked blasts. Neighbors and friends of the Egyptian – who had lived in Leeds for five years before going to Cairo in late June – said he frequented the same Grand Mosque where the three local suspects prayed.
Hundreds of police officers spent the weekend poring over witness reports in response to investigators’ appeals for information about the last 90 minutes of the actions and whereabouts of the fourth suicide bomber, 18-year-old Hasib Hussain. The teen, whose remains were found in the No. 30 double-decker bus wreckage, detonated his rucksack of explosives almost an hour after the other three.
Anti-terrorism chief Peter Clarke called on the public to help police piece together Hussain’s movements following the discovery of the four on surveillance cameras at King’s Cross station 20 minutes before the three subway explosions.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair planned to present his Labor Party government’s proposed legislation to deter the spread of radical Islam in Britain.
The anti-terrorism laws would make it a crime to take part in terrorism training in Britain or abroad. The measures would criminalize extremist preaching as incitement to violence, and anyone glorifying suicide bombers as “martyrs” could be charged with glorifying terrorism.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke will introduce the drafts to parliament today, and Blair will meet with opposition party leaders, apparently hoping to capitalize on rare political collaboration among rival parties in the wake of the attacks.
