London, April 9: British police have done what their counterparts in India failed to do — picked up 10 Pakistani “students” who had slipped into the United Kingdom apparently intent on perpetrating an outrage that would have made last November’s Mumbai atrocity look little more than a practice run.

“We are dealing with a very big terrorist plot,” revealed Gordon Brown.

The Prime Minister emphasised: “We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan. That is an important issue for us to follow through and that’s why I will be talking to President Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future.”

The answer might be “not very much” for British analysts are not certain that Zardari can control the terrorist infiltration of the ISI.

Attention was diverted from the horror allegedly being planned in Britain because Scotland Yard’s head of counter-terrorism, assistant commissioner Bob Quick, made a silly but potentially catastrophic mistake when entering Downing Street yesterday open clutching a sheaf of top secret briefing documents.

The writing on the documents could be read easily through the powerful lenses of the photographers who are on permanent duty outside 10 Downing Street. The resulting photographs were in the process of being flashed around the world even though officials from the ministry of defence slapped notices on media outlets forbidding disclosure.

Quick himself read the writing on the wall and resigned today from his post. The operation he had headed, carefully putting together the intelligence on the Pakistani suspects before the planned raids by hundreds of armed police across the North West of England, had to be advanced by 12 hours.

Whether any terrorists in the UK were tipped off by their controllers in Pakistan and managed to slip away will probably never be known.

The Prime Minister, who was himself up north in Carlisle today, said he had spoken to Quick: “He has made his apologies and was very concerned that an apology was made for a blunder that happened.”

There has been speculation about the terrorists’ likely targets which Brown would not comment on but he added: “We have been investigating a major terrorist plot and we have got to act early. We have been following it for some time. There were a number of people who are suspected of it who have been arrested. That police operation was successful. We had to act pre-emptively to ensure the safety of the public.”

Quick, a former chief constable of Surrey, covered himself with sack cloth: “I have today offered my resignation in the knowledge that my action could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation.”

Perhaps police in India and especially in Mumbai could now employ Quick, who is expected to become a freelance security consultant, to give them a few tips on how to do their jobs properly.

From all over the country reports are coming in of well-built young Pakistanis, rather in the mould of Ajmal Kasab and his mates, being picked up at gun point. It is possible that British intelligence encouraged their Pakistani counterparts to be slightly more helpful than the latter had been to the Indians.

Instead of conducting dawn raids today, police began swooping from 5.30pm yesterday on addresses in Cheetham Hill in Manchester, Liverpool, including John Moores University, and Clitheroe, in Lancashire.

Raids on 10 properties netted 12 men, including 10 Pakistani nationals on student visas. The question will be whether they had come from the same pool as Kasab and his colleagues. Therefore, it is entirely possible that British and Indian intelligence will now want to compare notes – and try and get to the source of the fountain back in Pakistan.

One UK-born Briton was also arrested but he may be a link man based in the UK. One witness at John Moores University, journalism student Daniel Taylor, described the raid: “I was on the second floor of the library when I heard a lot of shouting outside. When I looked, I saw a man on the floor. Police were shouting at him and one of the officers had what looked like a machine gun pointed right into his head. A few metres away there was a second guy also on the ground. Both men were being patted down by police officers wearing blue plastic gloves. Then word spread that one of the men might have had a bomb and some people started to panic. The men appeared to be just ordinary students. They were dressed very casually and were in their 20s.”

A Homebase store in Clitheroe was also raided by more than 100 officers. Two staff members, thought to be security guards, were arrested.

Four addresses were raided in Cheetham Hill in Greater Manchester.

Forensic officers continue to work today at homes in Galsworthy Avenue, Greenhill Road, Abercarn Close and Esmond Road. Neighbours said three Pakistani men, all thought to be students, had been living at the Esmond Road home for a short time.

At another address in Earle Road in Liverpool, four Pakistani accounting students had been living in a flat above an off-licence liquor store. At least, one man was arrested, witnesses said.

Easter falls this weekend when the terrorist outrages might have occurred.