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Rediff News  All News  » News » Like his life, Rashid Rauf's death too shrouded in mystery

Like his life, Rashid Rauf's death too shrouded in mystery

Last updated on: November 24, 2008 19:17 IST

A top Member of Parliament in the UK has asked if the government knew about the US missile strike in Pakistan which killed an on-the-run militant from the UK.

Media reports said that Conservative MP Patrick Mercer alleged that Rashid Rauf was killed by the US forces in North Waziristan. The killing, the MP said, violated the UK's human rights laws, which never allows the country to deport terror suspects, fearing death penalty or torture in their respective countries.

Describing the incident as a blot in the country's human rights record, he sought clear-cut rules in the counter-terror operations.

"This is a very serious matter, particularly if the attack was based on intelligence provided by the British security agencies," he told the Sunday Times.

The MP said, "Ultimately, it  led to the execution of a British subject."


Rauf is a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad, who was released in exchange for the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Kandhar in Afghanistan in December 1999.




UK terror plot



Rauf's case has always been shrouded in mystery.

Now, even his death remains a mystery. 

Image: A file photograph of Rashid Rauf being escorted by commandos on the way to his court appearance in Rawalpindi in 2006.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Rediff News Bureau