London: British intelligence investigating Thursday's terror attack on Heathrow has said that Pakistani officials had informed them that senior Kashmiri militants with direct links to the al-Qaeda could be behind the plot.
They said the Pakistani intelligence input gave them an indication of the seriousness of the threat, following which they brought in Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch for investigations.
US sources, in the aftermath of the proclamation by UK authorities that they had foiled a terror attack, claimed that substantial sums of money had been wired from Pakistan to two of the alleged ringleaders so that they could purchase airline tickets. One report said they were planning a "dry run".
Whitehall sources also corroborated this saying they had established clear links with Pakistan and north African countries and got concrete evidence that some of the arrested had made several visits to Pakistan.
Officials said since December, the Metropolitan Police's anti-terror branch was keeping tabs on the suspects and closely monitoring their meetings, conversations, backgrounds and also their bank accounts.
Counter intelligence agencies of the US, Pakistan, north African countries and Germany were contacted for vital details and information from phone taps and bugging devices gathered, for getting a bigger picture of the group of British born radical Muslim youth who were inspired by the idea of a global jehad and were sympathetic to the al-Qaeda, they said.
"We have been looking at meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people. This has involved close co-operation, not only between agencies and police forces in the UK, but also internationally," Deputy Assistant Commissioner and head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, Peter Clarke told The Times.
Officials said they found a very disturbing trend. The group had links throughout the country - east London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, and Birmingham - as well as abroad, and was taking a keen interest in aircraft and homemade explosives, and how to smuggle the latter through airport security.
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