Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent | April 11
A PAKISTANI ring of suspected terrorists may have been planning an Easter attack on Manchester targets including three large shopping centres and a nightclub, according to British police.
Police and MI5 intelligence analysts decided to seize the 12 men after intercepting emails and other messages suggesting an attack was possible within days - but the arrests were brought forward in a hurry after an embarrassing security bungle on Wednesday, local time.
Britain's top counter-terrorism police officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, had carried details of the planned raids in a clear plastic folder visible to press photographers as he entered 10 Downing Street to brief Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
When police realised that photographers had captured images of the secret notes the raids were rushed forward by about 12 hours to prevent the suspects being tipped off by the photographs.
The armed raids had to be carried out in daylight with greater risk to the police and the public than there would have been under the original plan of arresting the men overnight, but the operation was carried out successfully.
Hundreds of officers grabbed the 12 men in simultaneous raids at 10 addresses in Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere in northern England, including a university library in Liverpool and a car being driven on a motorway near Manchester.
Mr Quick resigned from the police force the following morning, admitting his mistake "could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation". That meant his error had cost Britain its most highly qualified anti-terror officer, who has been praised by the Government for helping keep Britain safe.
All of the arrested men appear to have come from the al-Qa'ida stronghold of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province or to have family links to the region.
Eleven of the men were Pakistanis who entered Britain on student visas and one was a British citizen whose family came from the same region.
If police suspicions are correct, the dispatch of such a terror team from Pakistan marks a stark turning point in the tactics of al-Qa'ida-linked extremists targeting Britain, who until now have relied on recruiting and training British-based Islamists.
Police say that since the July 2007 suicide bombings on three London trains and a bus they have broken up several terror attempts by home-grown extremists trained in Pakistan, but this is the first time they have encountered a group of Pakistani nationals apparently sent to Britain on such a mission.
Mr Quick's counter-terror police unit and MI5 are believed to have had the men under surveillance for a month.
Several British newspapers reported yesterday that surveillance agents had allegedly seen the men taking video footage and photographs of each other in front of four Manchester sites that could have been targets. They were the Birdcage nightclub and three shopping areas, the Trafford Centre, the Arndale Centre and St Ann's Square.
Some police sources said investigators had not yet identified the potential targets but they decided it was too dangerous to keep waiting for more information.
The Christian Holy Week is one of the busiest shopping times of the year and could have been an attractive time for an Islamic extremist attack. Intercepted messages suggested something was going to happen within days, police said.
Mr Brown said police had prevented "a very big plot" and he vowed to tell Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that Pakistan had to do more to fight terrorism.
"We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan," Mr Brown said. "That is an important issue for us to follow through and that's why I will be talking to President Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future."
The incident has raised pressure for a clampdown on student visas, especially those given to Pakistanis.
The UK Border Agency said last month that when it checked on the 2100 colleges that had applied for new licences to admit international students, it found 460 were bogus establishments sponsoring students as part of immigration scams.
In the four years to April last year Britain issued a total of 42,292 student visas to Pakistani students.
Police were believed to be concentrating on Liverpool as they searched yesterday for a suspected bomb factory, but they did not announce any such discovery.
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