British and Pakistani investigators are trying to determine whether the group of Britons suspected of plotting to blow up as many as 10 commercial airliners may have received money raised for earthquake relief by Pakistan’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Active in the mosques of Britain’s largest cities, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, whose chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed was detained by Pakistani authorities last Wednesday, played a significant role in carrying out relief efforts after last October’s earthquake in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

(The probe into the role of the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s front comes at a time when the authorities are questioning Jaish-e-Mohammed affiliate Rashid Rauf, a British national who was arrested in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur hours before the authorities began a series of raids across Britain to break up the plot. Rauf appears to be a crucial player in the plot.)

British and Pakistani investigators are looking into the possibility that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa passed the earthquake donations raised in British mosques to the plotters, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

One former Pakistani official close to the intelligence officials there said Jamaat-ud-Dawa provided the money that was to be used to buy plane tickets for the suspects to conduct a practice run as well as the attacks themselves. The money is believed to have come directly from the group’s network in Britain and was not sent from Pakistan.

“The Pakistanis have been asked by the British to examine the links between Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the suspects in the airplane attack,” the former Pakistani official said.

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