SOME of the main fundraisers for the terror group suspected of masterminding the Bombay train bombings are operating from Britain, according to Indian intelligence officials.

The officials accuse Britain of failing to act against a number of wealthy businessmen, who they claim are using bogus charities to funnel up to £8 million a year to Kashmiri militants groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which remains the main suspect for orchestrating the synchronised bombings that killed 182 people.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, raised the terror link with Tony Blair at the G8 summit in St Petersburg yesterday, reminding him that India handed over a detailed dossier three years ago identifying 14 men living in Britain and was assured the suspects would be investigated.

"Since then nothing has been done, and the money still coming from Britain helps to pay for the terrorist camps where we believe the bombers were trained and this atrocity was planned," a senior Indian security official said last night.

Gordon Brown pledged that the Treasury would use new laws to shut down terrorist fundraising and ordered that the bank accounts of 54 organisations be frozen, although records show that last year Whitehall only recovered £9,318.

"Britain talks about the need for all nations to get tough together, but more money comes from the UK to Kashmiri terror groups than any other country," the official added.

One of those identified in the dossier is reported to be a Pakistan-born multimillionaire businessman who owns at least two luxury homes in London.

Professor Paul Wilkinson, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews, said: "It is very sad the figure for the money still flowing to the likes of Lashkar has not been substantially reduced by now. It is difficult to track the money trail, but we should put more resources to doing so."

The funding from overseas has helped terror groups to set up a string of new training camps in Bangladesh, close to the border with India.

Al-Qaeda-trained militants are reportedly running up to 13 camps, and MI6 and other Western intelligence agencies have been monitoring the traffic of young recruits to these centres including a number of volunteers based in Britain.

British security agencies had been warning that groups closely linked to al-Qaeda were planning to stage bomb attacks in India, using local sym- pathisers to carry out their operation.

Scores of Indian-based militants are alleged to have attended the al-Qaeda run camps near Bandarban and Chittagong. Security chiefs believe that the mastermind behind the bombing on seven commuter trains used one of these camps in Bangladesh to finalise plans for the attack.

Anti-terrorist officers involved in the hunt for the Bombay bombers travelled to the border town of Tripura yesterday to question 11 men from the port city who were said to have been caught trying to cross back into Bangladesh. The men are believed to be militant members of the outlawed (Student Islamic Movement of India), which police allege helped in the bomb plot.

Teams of armed officers continued with their mass round-ups yesterday, with further raids on a number of shanty towns around Bombay. So far they have detained more than 1,300 men, but the police face mounting public criticism at their failure to arrest anyone involved in the terror network that is believed to have been living in India's financial capital for at least three months.

D. K. Shankaran, the chief secretary of Maharashtra state, of which Bombay is the capital, said last night: "We believe police will be able to zero in on the culprits within a week."

As he left for St Petersburg Mr Singh, said: "We will impress upon the leaders gathered at the G8 summit that the international community must adopt an approach of zero tolerance toward terrorism anywhere."

He also made a thinly veiled attack on Pakistan, which he has blamed for sheltering terrorists, adding: "The international community must isolate and condemn terrorists wherever they attack, whatever their cause and whichever country or group provides them sustenance and support."

Talks planned for Thursday between the countries' foreign ministers were postponed yesterday, with India's Foreign Minister giving warning: "As a result of these terrorist attacks, it is becoming very difficult to take forward the peace process."

Millions are expected to take part in a two-minute silence to be staged in Bombay tomorrow at the time of the first explosion. Bollywood stars who live in the city will join politicians, police and survivors of the attack in a public show of defiance against the terrorists.
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