NYC suspect linked to Pakistani terrorists in London pub plot

Associated Press via Newsday.com ^ | June 16, 2004 | Tom Hays

[Qaz_W]

NEW YORK -- A Queens man has been jailed secretly since April on suspicions he joined a Pakistani terrorism cell in a plot against targets in London, officials said Wednesday.

The suspect, Mohammed Junaid Babar, was detained by the Joint Terrorism Task Force on April 10 as a material witness, according to two law enforcement officials. Babar has been in custody since then at the Metropolitan Detention Center in lower Manhattan.

One of the officials, who both spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, alleged Babar aided a plot to "blow up pubs, restaurants and train stations" in London.

The plot was foiled in late March, when British authorities arrested eight suspects and seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer _ which can be used to make explosives _ from a storage locker near central London.

Babar, 29, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, has not been publicly charged. Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, declined to comment................................