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Rashid
Rauf escape in Pakistan
Musharraf
regime colludes with jihadists and terrorists
London - Sunday 16 December
2007
"The
Pakistani authorities are running rings around the British government. Their
failure to hold securely Rashid Rauf
is further evidence that Musharraf's regime is not serious about tackling
terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism,” said London-based human
rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, who is
active in support of the democracy movement inside Pakistan and in
Pakistan-occupied Baluchistan.
He was commenting on
the escape from Pakistani police custody of
wanted British terror suspect, Rashid Rauf.
"The negligence of the
Pakistan police and security agencies in allowing Rauf to escape looks
more than accidental. It smacks of high-level collusion with the jihadists,”
added Mr Tatchell.
"Britain and the US
should withdraw their support from the Pakistani dictator, President
Musharraf. His regime is colluding with terrorism, not combating it.
“Rauf's escape
comes at a time when Britain and Pakistan have
been in secret negotiations for a prisoner swap.
"The UK police want to
extradite Rashid Rauf from Pakistan. They are keen to question him in
connection with the 2006 plot to blow-up transatlantic airliners.
"In return, the
Pakistani government is demanding the extradition from Britain of several
exiled Baluch nationalists, in order to silence their campaign to
expose Pakistan’s repression in Baluchistan.
This repression includes detention without trial, torture, extra-judicial
executions and the bombing of villages suspected of being sympathetic to
the Baluch independence movement.
"The failure of the
British government to comply with requests to deport Baluch human rights
activists may be the reason Pakistan has refused to cooperate with the
UK's request to extradite Rauf and why elements
within Pakistan's security agencies have apparently colluded to spring
Rauf from custody.
“Last week, two Baluch
nationalists and human rights campaigners appeared at Westminster
Magistrate’s Court in London on terrorism charges. They are Hyrbyair
Marri and Faiz Baluch.
"Both men are wanted by
Pakistan as part of a prisoner swap deal with
the UK.
“Mr Marri is a former MP
and government minister in the provincial assembly of Baluchistan during
the 1990s. A member of one of the most distinguished and esteemed Baluch
families, he is a rather unlikely terrorist.
His brother was murdered by
the Pakistani military on 21 November.
Mr
Baluch is his campaign colleague.
"I
know both the detained men. They are Baluchistan nationalists and human
rights campaigners. We worked together to expose Pakistan’s persecution
of the Baluch people. The defendants have never expressed to me any
support or sympathy for terrorism. All our campaigns have been lawful and
peaceful. I would be very surprised if either man was involved in any
terror plot.
"These men are
campaigning for a free and independent Baluchistan. Their homeland was a
former British Protectorate. It secured independence in 1947. Less than a
year later, Pakistan invaded and annexed the newly-independent nation. The
Baluch people have never given up their struggle to reassert their freedom
and one day they will be free," said Mr Tatchell.
Further
information: Peter Tatchell 020 7403 1790
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