Pakistan Times : Rashid Rauf most likely to face Extradition

Rashid Rauf most likely to face Extradition

'Pakistan Times' NWFP Bureau | August 31, 2006

PESHAWAR: British national Rashid Rauf, a key suspect in the London terror plot, who also holds Pakistani passport, is most likely to face extradition to United Kingdom as soon the interrogation process is completed here despite the fact that the two countries have no extradition treaty.

It is believed that both the states are about to ink extradition treaty to facilitate the handing over of the suspect for interrogation by the UK security agencies.

Though Pakistan and UK have no extradition treaty in place but even then the two sides could handover wanted people to each other using diplomatic channels.

Head of the Press & Public Affairs in British High Commission, Aidan Liddle said this during Peshawar Press Club Guest Hour Programme here Tuesday.

However the head of British press squad in Islamabad claimed that the suspect Rashid Rauf was also wanted by his government in a murder case committed in Scotland Yard of some four years back.

Liddle sounded optimistic that Islamabad would not turn down the London request in this regard adding both countries had been working on the draft of an extradition treaty, which was now in final stage and it was possible that Islamabad and London could have the accord in near future.

“Once we have the treaty in place, the process of handing over of wanted people will become easy and simple in the future”, Aidan Liddle observed.

Mr. Riddle did not agree to a questioner that plot to explode the transatlantic jetliners was a drama jointly prepared by secret agencies of UK and Pakistan.
“How could secret agencies plot a game at such a high scale, which may involve lot of complications”, the British press officer asked.

To a query about UK move to declare Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as terrorist organization, Aidan Liddle said Pakistan and England had been close partners in the war against terrorism and it was the moral responsibility of the two countries to give weight to the demands and requests of each other.

Riddle, however skipped a question about the so–called US and UK war against terrorism when asked if it was a fact that it was unleashed by America against the Islamic Ummah under the vague concept of war on terror.