The organisation reportedly received $10mn from Britain for earthquake relief last year, but less than half was used for relief operations.
WASHINGTON: A Pakistani charity that received USD 10 million from Britain for earthquake relief last year helped finance the alleged bomb plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets, a media report said on Tuesday.
"The innocent Pakistani souls in Britain who contributed so generously for the victims of the earthquake didn't know that their money would actually be used for one of the biggest terrorist operations," a Pakistani intelligence official told the Washington Post.
The charity was not mentioned by name, but the official said the funds traced to it helped investigators uncover the alleged plot British authorities thwarted last week and which US officials have tentatively linked to Al-Qaeda.
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official said the charity had received some USD 10 million from Britain, but that less than half was used for relief operations in the October earthquake that killed 73,000 people.
"British intelligence smelled a foul play the moment the transfer was made in December last year," said the senior official, who like his colleague asked not to be identified due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani government official said that a Briton of Pakistani descent had sent more than USD 40 million via Dubai between May and November 2005 into three Pakistani bank accounts.
"But it was a case of money laundering and the details were conveyed to the concerned British authorities," the official added on condition of anonymity.
He said no arrests were made in Pakistan in connection with the cash transfers and the probe was "not even remotely linked to any extremist organisation or London plotters."
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