Posted on 08/19/2006 9:10:30 AM PDT by Grendel9
Saturday, 19 August, 2006, 11:07 AM
Pedestrians walk past the house of Rashid Rauf in Bhawalpur some 400kms south of Islamabad (picture)
ISLAMABAD: The authorities have detained the father of British airline bomb plot suspect Rashid Rauf, making him the third member of the family in custody worldwide, security officials said in Islamabad yesterday.
Senior officials said Abdul Rauf, 52, met his son shortly before the arrest in early August of 25-year-old Rashid, who is described by Pakistan as a "key man" in the conspiracy with links to Al Qaeda.
It was not clear whether Pakistan-born Abdul, who has lived in Britain for decades, was in custody for questioning over his son’s alleged role in the conspiracy to blow up trans-Atlantic jets or if he was a suspect himself.
One intelligence source said Abdul was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents from Islamabad international airport soon after the arrest of Rashid earlier this month.
Another son, 22-year-old Tayib, was confirmed as among two dozen people who were arrested in Britain on August 10 after the alleged plan was busted.
"He was taken into custody from the airport when he was leaving the country," the official said without elaborating.
Pakistan confirmed last week that two Britons were among seven people it had detained in connection with the foiled plot to detonate liquid explosives on planes flying from Britain to the US.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said he was not aware that Abdul Rauf was in custody. "It is not to my knowledge," he said.
Abdul is said to have emigrated from Kashmir in the 1960s and reportedly runs a bakery in the English city of Birmingham.
Intelligence officials and friends said Abdul had travelled to Pakistan in July along with his daughter and a younger son to attend a wedding.
Residents said he had visited the family’s ancestral village in the Kashmiri hamlet Haveli Begal, where they still have a house, around two weeks ago but had then left.
The officials said Abdul also met his son a few days before Rashid was apprehended in Bahawalpur, in southern Punjab province. "He went to see his son in Bahawalpur around August 4," another official said.
Pakistan has said it could extradite Rashid, who fled to Pakistan in 2002 and is wanted for questioning by police in Britain after his uncle was stabbed to death.
While living in Pakistan, Rashid married a woman related to the chief of the banned militant group Jaish-e-Mohamed and had two children. Jaish says Rashid was not a member of the group.
The British High Commission in Islamabad said it was still waiting for Pakistan to respond to a request for details on the arrests of any British nationals in connection with the plots.
British Interior Minister John Reid had telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Sherpao on Thursday evening and "once again personally expressed his thanks to the Pakistani authorities for their continuing assistance in the on-going counter terror operation," the high commission said in a statement.
Pakistan meanwhile has informed US-led coalition forces that a Middle Eastern Al Qaeda kingpin linked to the bomb plot is based in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, other security officials said without naming the militant.
The information on the unnamed Al-Qaeda operative, said to be a level below the network’s chief Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, came from the interrogation of Rashid Rauf by Pakistani agents, the officials added.
The official said that "coalition partners" had been informed and "we are working very closely" without disclosing if there was any progress in the hunt.
"The official said that "coalition partners" had been informed and "we are working very closely" without disclosing if there was any progress in the hunt."
This "working very closely" had better continue or the world as we know it is gone.
What they gonna do now with all these exta "virgins"... ah, I fogot, its "raisins"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.