3 Bombers Made Visits to Pakistan

Three of the four British men identified as the London bombers were visiting in Pakistan this year, two traveling together, Pakistani officials confirmed Monday. Investigators are trying to determine whether their trips were connected with planning for the attack now blamed for killing 56 people.

The information released Monday adds to suspicions that the three men, who all grew up in or around the same neighborhood in Leeds, may have received instructions or help from militants based in Pakistan and tied to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Shahzad Tanweer, 22, and Mohamed Sidique Khan, 30, two of the bombers of Pakistani descent, flew to Karachi on Nov. 19 on a Turkish Airlines flight and remained there until February, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said.

Tanweer, an avid sportsman whose father owned a local fish-and-chips shop, had told his family he was going to Pakistan to study religion.

Investigators are trying to determine whether he and Khan met in Pakistan with Hasib Hussain, 18, another of the bombers, who was already there.

Khan, Tanweer, Hussain and the fourth bomber, Jamaican-born Briton Germaine Lindsay, 19, a convert to Islam, are all thought to have died in the July 7 blasts on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus.

Officials initially believed the four had no previous involvement in terrorism, but authorities have since said that Khan had come to their attention in relation to a plot foiled last year by British detectives who found a large amount of explosive materials in a west London warehouse. Khan was not considered enough of a threat then to be put under full-time surveillance.

In another development, an Israeli official quoted by Reuters news service confirmed that Khan, a former teacher’s aide in Leeds who is being portrayed as a mentor for the younger men, had visited Israel for a day two months before a 2003 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv carried out by two British-born men of Pakistani descent.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv had said the purpose of Khan’s visit on Feb. 19, 2003, may have been to plan the April 30, 2003, bombing of a seafront bar, in which three Israelis died. Other Israeli sources quoted by Reuters said the purpose had not been established.

The Tel Aviv bombing was the first known suicide attack by British Muslims.

However, several militant clerics in Britain repeatedly have praised such “martyr operations.” British Muslims have appeared in disguise on British television several times over the last year speaking of their desire to become suicide bombers to defend Islam, which they say is under attack from the West.

The existence of extremist preaching has spurred Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government to prepare new anti-terrorism laws, including a provision that would bar “indirect incitement” such as praising suicide attacks and acts that prepare for terrorist attacks.

In a show of unity, Home Secretary Charles Clarke met Monday with opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders to get a consensus on the new law, expected to be passed quickly when Parliament returns to session in October.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw responded angrily to a think tank report suggesting that Britain’s participation in the war in Iraq had left the country more vulnerable to terrorists.

The report, issued by Chatham House and the Economic and Social Research Council said Britain’s unequal partnership with the United States had left it vulnerable to attacks.

Straw said it was time to stop making “excuses” for terrorism. “The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq,” he said in Brussels.

In Leeds, authorities searched an Islamic bookstore for a fourth day. Residents of the Beeston neighborhood said the Iqra Learning Center had become a meeting place for militant young men. Authorities also continued to search the Leeds home of Egyptian biochemist Magdy el-Nashar, where police say they found explosive materials. El-Nashar is in custody in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities say El-Nashar, who was an instructor at the University of Leeds, has denied involvement in the attacks. Police say his phone number was found in the cellphone of Hussain.

In Pakistan, immigration records show that Tanweer and Khan stayed in Pakistan for almost three months and left together on Feb. 8 from Karachi.

Hussain arrived in Karachi from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on July 15, 2004, Pakistani authorities said. It is not known exactly when he left Pakistan, but he appeared to have returned home to Britain about the same time as the other two.

Pakistani authorities released photographs of the three that were taken when they arrived at the Karachi airport. The photos were taken by a U.S.-developed security system installed after the Sept. 11 attacks, which photographs all passengers as they present their passports when arriving at or departing from Pakistani airports.

The Times of London said Monday that it had been told by unidentified Pakistani security officials that all three men met with known Al Qaeda suspects during their visits, and spent most of the time with figures from outlawed militant groups.

Both Karachi, which is Pakistan’s financial center, and the eastern city of Lahore are known for Islamic extremist activities. Ramzi Binalshibh, who is suspected of helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks, was captured in Karachi in September 2002.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged to shut down militant groups more than three years ago, but some still have offices in Lahore, where they operate under new names.

Pakistani intelligence agents reportedly are investigating whether Tanweer visited the Manzoor-ul Islam madrasa, or religious school, in Lahore. It has been linked to the banned militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad. The madrasa’s leaders have denied that Tanweer attended the school.

Jaish-e-Muhammad is one of several groups believed to have been fostered by the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency to fight Indian rule in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Some of the militant groups subsequently developed links to Al Qaeda and began to target Musharraf, who has survived several assassination attempts.

Musharraf’s security forces have arrested or killed several hundred militants over the last few years.

Yet extremists such as Jaish leader Maulana Masood Azhar have not been jailed. Azhar fled his home in late 2003, and Pakistani authorities say they cannot find him.

Special correspondent Zaidi and Times staff writer Watson reported from Islamabad. Staff writer John Daniszewski in London contributed to this report.