MPs demand Rashid Rauf confirmation
Updated on 23 November 2008
Two senior MPs have called for the Government to reveal whether it knew in advance about a US missile strike in Pakistan that reportedly killed a British terror suspect.
Rashid Rauf, who escaped from custody in Pakistan last year, was suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic jets.
His relatives are said to be distraught at reports that he was among five people killed by the attack in the tribal North Waziristan region.
The British Foreign Office said it was still investigating the reports and could not confirm whether Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham, had been killed.
But Pakistan's government confirmed that Rashid Rauf and a Saudi militant called Abu Zubair al-Masri were the apparent targets of the pre-dawn strike near the border with Afghanistan.
Andrew Dismore, the Labour chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, told a newspaper he would ask the committee to investigate whether British intelligence services had been consulted about the attack.
He said: "This is a very serious matter, particularly if the attack was based on intelligence provided by the British security agencies.
"We can investigate whether British security services had involvement in providing intelligence concerning British nationals in Pakistan. I anticipate this is a matter the committee might like to follow up.
"If there is any suggestion of complicity of the UK security services in this particular incident then that is certainly something we would want to take into account in our work on this subject."
Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark and former shadow security minister, said: "This raises the question of how much co-operation the British intelligence agencies provided in what is ultimately the execution of a British subject.
"The government must explain its involvement and its future policy in this area."
Rauf was suspected of having links to an alleged plot in 2006 to bring down up to ten transatlantic passenger jets.
He was arrested in Pakistan in 2006 following an apparent tip-off from British anti-terrorism officers, days before a series of raids in the UK which were followed by the tightening of hand baggage restrictions on flights.
Eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in April accused of conspiring to smuggle home-made liquid bombs on board a series of Atlantic passenger flights.
Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, but they will face a retrial next year on a more serious charge alongside four other defendants on whom the jury did not return verdicts.
© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
