The teenage son of a Muslim immigrant from India and suspected al-Qaeda leader in Britain are among the 24 people arrested in connection with the foiled plot to blow up the US-bound planes from the UK, according to a media report here.17-year-old Abdul Patel, the youngest among the suspects held last Thursday, is the son of a Muslim immigrant from India, the report said. Patel was one of the 19 suspects who were named and whose assets were frozen by Bank of England.Also, Scotland Yard believes that one of those arrested is al-Qaeda's leader in Britain and has been acting as a suspected hub in a network of extremist groups, including Kashmiri and north African groups based here, The Sunday Times reported but could not name the suspect due to legal reasons.Quoting home office officials, it said one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bomb the US-bound flights, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years.They believe that he was instrumental in sending the ringleader of at least one previous British terror plot for training at a camp in Pakistan last year. He is described by counter-terrorist officials at Mi5, the British intelligence service, as the senior figure in a British terror network innvolving Kashmiri, north African and Iraqi cells.The investigation into the suspected al-Qaeda leader in Britain and his UK associates was considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, Mi5's Director General, to be the security service's single most important line of inquiry.He is suspected of being behind two "pipelines" which saw potential terrorist recruits being sent for training at camps in Pakistan and to join the "holy war" in Iraq.
