British watchdog studies reports linking charity work to terror plot

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — Britain's charity watchdog is checking into claims of links between suspects in an alleged airline bombing plot and a British aid group that raised money for earthquake relief in Pakistan.

The Charity Commission told AFP on Saturday it is examining reported links between the charity and the conspiracy to blow up US-bound planes but declined to say whether it had been approached by the police.

The Times newspaper said Saturday that Crescent Relief London, which mobilized for the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan, was created in 2000 by Abdul Rauf, from the central English city of Birmingham.

His 25-year-old son Rashid was arrested as a "key" plot suspect in Pakistan shortly before his 21-year-old son Tayib was arrested in Birmingham in an August...