Thaindian News

London, July 8 (ANI): A Pakistani student, who was arrested last year along with 12 others in raids across Manchester for plotting attacks on shopping centres, has been arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on New York’s underground Metro system.

British agencies had failed to extradite Abid Naseer , 24, to Pakistan after the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission ruled that while he was connected to Al-Qaeda, he could not be deported back on human rights grounds.

However, US authorities have now demanded Nasser’s extradition for trial after evidence suggested that the explosives which were to be used to bomb the New York Metro were the same as he has stockpiled for planned attacks in Manchester.

The US Department of Justice (USDoJ) said the American plot was “directly related to a scheme by Al-Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United Kingdom,” The Telegraph reports.

Large quantities of flour and oil were found when Naseer’s residence in Cheetham Hill, Manchester was raided by police, a statement said.

According to a US indictment Nasser and his friend Tariq ur-Rehman, who returned to Pakistan after he was released from British custody earlier this year, were recruited at the same time and members of a terrorist cell coordinated by Rashid Rauf, a British al-Qaeda commander.

Rauf was also involved in the July 7, 2005 terror attacks on London. He is believed to have been killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan in November 2008. (ANI)