Pakistan connection: Pakistan says it suspects an al-Qaeda connection to the alleged attempt to blow up transatlantic airliners, based on information from suspects arrested in the country before the plot was uncovered earlier this week.
In a statement, the Pakistani government named Rashid Rauf, a British national arrested more than a week ago, as a "key person" in the plot and said there were indications of an "Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda connection".
Interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao claimed Rauf has links with al-Qaeda.
"We arrested him from the border area and on his disclosure we shared the information with British authorities, which led to further arrests in Britain," he said.
In a television interview, the foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri confirmed the arrests of seven suspects in Pakistan. Two of those detained, including Rauf, are British nationals of Pakistani descent.
He said the seven "had been monitored for quite some time" before their capture.
They are understood to have been arrested more than a week ago in locations including the eastern city of Lahore and the southern port of Karachi. It is believed the five other suspects are Pakistani nationals. They are considered to be less central to the alleged plot, with some officials suggesting they had acted as local "facilitators" for the two Britons.
Meanwhile, reports citing British and US government officials alleged two of the 24 men arrested in Britain had met Matiur Rehman, a senior al-Qaeda operative wanted in Pakistan. Earlier this year, Rehman was reported to be planning attacks against the US. The Pakistani government is offering a 10-million rupee (€134,000) reward for his capture.
In a further development, the Associated Press quoted a Pakistani intelligence official saying 10 Pakistani nationals had been arrested yesterday in Bhawalpur, more than 300 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad. The official said the arrests were also in connection with the alleged plot.
While Pakistan's government patted itself on the back for helping foil the plan to target US-bound aircraft, the developments turned the spotlight yet again on the country's links with militant groups such as al-Qaeda.
Pakistan has repeatedly faced criticism that it has not done enough to root out militants, many of whom are accused of providing training and support to those planning terrorist attacks elsewhere.
Despite the government's rounding up of hundreds of al-Qaeda members since allying itself with the US following the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan struggles to shrug off its image as a haven for militancy.
Several al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding in the badlands that straddle Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. They have established close ties with some home-grown groups in Pakistan.
Two leading al-Qaeda figures, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, were tracked down and arrested in Pakistan in the last five years. Many militants are believed to have gone to ground in the sprawling suburbs of Karachi.
Three of the four suicide bombers involved in the attacks on London's transport system that killed 52 people last July were British Muslims of Pakistani origin and had visited Pakistan before the attacks, triggering suspicions that they had forged links with militants in the country.
In 2004, Pakistani authorities arrested a computer engineer who had allegedly been sending e-mail messages between al-Qaeda operatives planning an attack on London's Heathrow airport and several US cities.
His capture led to the arrest of at least 13 suspects in Britain and prompted authorities in the US to issue security alerts.
After explosions ripped through the Indian city of Mumbai in July, killing more than 180 people, India's government lambasted Pakistan, accusing it of failing to clamp down on terrorist organisations operating within the country.
Earlier this week Pakistan placed the founder of the group suspected of involvement in the Mumbai bombings under house arrest. Authorities said the move against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed was not connected to the UK plot.