UK SECURITY services were last night still trying to determine whether British Muslims had been involved in the Mumbai massacre.
Reports that seven of the gunmen had links to Britain saw feverish speculation about the origins of the terrorists and led to police and security services analysing their intelligence to find out if any had lived in, or visited, the UK.
Yesterda
y, the Foreign Office said there was "no evidence" yet to suggest any of the terrorists were connected to Britain.
Yet the possibility of British involvement was suggested by some reports, which claimed that suspects had connections with Leeds, Hartlepool and Bradford. It was also claimed that British-born Pakistanis had taken part in the massacre.
According to one report, four of the terrorists, two of whom are dead, had spent time in the UK.
In another account, Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state – of which Mumbai is the capital – was reported to have said that two Pakistanis of British descent were among the terrorists.
But a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We have spoken to Indian authorities at a high level and they have said that there is no evidence that any of the terrorists, either captured or dead, are British."
Referring to the comments reportedly made by Deshmukh, he said: "He said no such thing either publicly or privately."
Speculation linking the attackers with Bradford, West Yorkshire, was dismissed by the Leeds-based Counter Terrorism Unit.
A statement from officers said: "At this stage, we are not in receipt of any intelligence or information linking the events in India to our area."
But senior Whitehall sources said yesterday it was too early to say whether there had been any involvement by British nationals but that security services, working with overseas partners, would be looking at any potential links to the UK.
Security services are believed to be examining intelligence on domestic suspects with overseas extremist links and reviewing tracked telephone calls to see if British citizens were involved.
According to security agencies, more than 4,000 British Muslims have passed through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, joining groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the prime suspects for the attacks. This potentially fertile recruitment pool for the Islamist international jihad has inflamed claims of British involvement.
Even if there are no Brits involved, the finger of suspicion still points at Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has been fighting against Indian forces in Kashmir.
"There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places such as Kandahar," said Brigadier Ed Butler, a former commander of the British troops in Helmand, southern Afghanistan.
"There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something that the British military understands but the British public does not."
Last year, RAF Nimrod intelligence-gathering aircraft tracking Taliban radio signals in Afghanistan heard insurgent fighters speaking with Yorkshire and Midlands accents.
Some in the Indian government have suggested that the attack could have been planned or launched from Pakistan.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said: "According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks. Proof cannot be disclosed at this time."
Erika Mann, a European Union trade official who had been at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel during the siege, said she heard British nationals were among the gunmen. She said she had escaped the attack through an underground passage in the hotel.
She told the Times of India: "The attacks appear to have a European dimension. We've heard from journalists and other people we were with that English citizens were involved in the attacks."
After speaking with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gordon Brown said there was no suggestion of a British link at the moment.
He added: "At no point has the Prime Minister of India suggested to me that there is evidence at this stage of any terrorist of British origins, but obviously these are huge investigations that are being done and I think that it will be premature to draw any conclusions at all."
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also said UK authorities had "no knowledge" of any British links with the massacre.
A team of detectives from Scotland Yard is flying to Mumbai to help Indian authorities with the investigation.
The full article contains 727 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
