Frontier Post : Conspiracy shrouds Rauf’s death: Chughtai Abdul Sattar Qamar

Conspiracy shrouds Rauf’s death: Chughtai Abdul Sattar Qamar

November 28, 2008

MULTAN: British terror plot suspect Rashid Rauf was handed over to Britain and his death news spread under a well-planned conspiracy, alleged Maulana Riaz Chughtai, Amir of JUI, who is also known as a Rashid's spokesman in Bahawalpur while talking to newsmen on Thursday. He asked "where is his body if he was killed in missile attack in North Waziristan and his body should be handed over to his wife for funeral rites. He said that Rashid's father Abdul Rauf was a Kashmiri who was settled in United Kingdom for business. Rashid was married to Ummat Wadood Saira, daughter of late Maulana Ghulam Mustafa in 2003. Saira gave birth to two daughters Naushaiba Fatima (3) and Saliha (2). After his acquittal in a case of plotting to blow up transatlantic airliners in 2006, he came back to Pakistan and started cosmetics business in Karachi. During this he was married and he constructed a home in Bahawalpur. Speaking through Rauf's spokesman, Maulana Riaz Chughtai, the family of Rauf's wife in Pakistan said that the body had not been handed over to them and the authorities were not responding to their questions. Rauf's death had been revealed by unnamed Pakistani intelligence agents, the usual source of information on the casualties of American strikes in the tribal area. "It's all a concocted and fabricated story," said Chughtai. "We're sure that he is not Rashid Rauf." Rauf escaped from Pakistani custody on December 13 last year in mysterious circumstances, on his way back from a court appearance in the city of Rawalpindi. His escape was a ruse. Nothing was subsequently heard of him, until the news that he had died in North Waziristan. "There was no reason for him to be in North Waziristan, he has no link with al-Qaeda or the Taliban," said the Maulana. He said "the entire family is hopeful that he is still alive. He might have met his death, but not through this strike." he added. He was accused of belonging to a banned militant organisation in Pakistan that has close links to al-Qaeda.