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Terror suspects in 'Easter bomb plot' worked at Manchester airport
Members of the alleged Al Qaeda cell suspected of plotting a Bank Holiday terror atrocity worked for a firm based at Manchester Airport. At least one drove vans for a cargo company which has access to sensitive locations.A further two had passed security industry checks which enabled them to guard premises overnight, further raising fears that members of the gang - all but one of them Pakistani students - were planning to infiltrate high-profile targets before an attack. The revelations came as police continued to question the 12 suspects and search properties across the North West, including one being examined as a possible bomb factory. It was further claimed that some of the men have links to the terror group accused of the devastating Mumbai attacks in India which left more than 170 dead. The group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, was also blamed for the Lahore cricket atrocity. At least two of the arrested men had worked for Manchester Airport-based delivery firm Cargo2Go, the Daily Mail can reveal. Hamza Shenwari, who was seized by an anti-terror squad while driving down the M602, and another suspect are believed to have worked on a selfemployed basis, using their own vans to deliver packages for the firm, which serves airports around the country. Directors of Cargo2Go confirmed the two men had worked there but refused to comment on whether any had been given such training. 'They weren't directly employed by us, they were selfemployed,' said director David Hough, who lives in Stockport. 'They would have had their own vans - we give them the logo and then they do the work. We're trying to get to the bottom of exactly who these men are.' Two more of the suspects were seized while working as security guards at a Homebase DIY store in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The pair were named by the firm which employed them as Umar Farooq and Johnus Khan. A Homebase spokesman confirmed that all its guards were required to have clearance from the Security Industry Authority, which has been ridiculed in the past for allowing 5,000 illegal immigrants to work as guards. A spokesman for the authority said foreign applicants would normally be granted a licence if agencies in their home country did not report that they had a criminal record.
Sky Interserve boss Muhammad Haroon Rashid, 26, himself a recent immigrant from Pakistan, said Farooq had lived in Britain for at least five years and was studying hotel management, but that he had not met Khan. 'I was really surprised to hear they had been arrested and linked to terrorism,' he added. 'I have spoken with friends of theirs and they think it is a mistake.' A flat in the Edge Hill area of Liverpool where Farooq lived was yesterday being searched by police. It was the second raid on flats in the same rundown block where police have been hunting possible bomb-making materials. Sources said no significant finds have so far been made. Other suspects include 22-year-old Abid Naseer, who lived with Shenwari in a terrace house in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester. Another, Sultan Sher, was arrested at the nearby Cyber Net Internet cafe alongside a man so far named only as Tariq. Police in Liverpool seized another suspect, Abdul Khan, 26, who had been studying English at the now-defunct Manchester College of Professional Studies. Although 11 of the suspects arrived in Britain on student visas, only one is known to have attended a reputable institution, a 26-year-old studying accountancy at Liverpool John Moores University. The suspects, who are being questioned at police stations around the North of England, are aged from their mid-teens to their early-40s. The alleged links to the Mumbai terror cell emerged from Pakistani intelligence sources, who claim to have supplied some of the suspects' names to Britain in the first place. They say these names - among a list of 36 - were obtained during questioning of four terror suspects arrested in Pakistan three months ago, and examining emails and phone calls. Posted by: Steve White 2009-04-12 |
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