Britain has sought extradition of its national Rashid Rauf, who is under investigation in connection with the foiled conspiracy to bomb planes flying from UK to USA earlier this month, and the matter is under consideration of the government of Pakistan, said Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam here on Monday.
In her weekly press briefing Tasnim cleared much of the mystery shrouding arrest of terrorism-suspect Rashid Rauf. She said that Rashid Rauf was arrested in Rawalpindi this month, after some specific information received from the British government.
"We are investigating his involvement in three areas: (a) his links with al Qaeda (b) threat projected in the United Kingdom and (c) threat projected in Pakistan and the information obtained from him, is shared with the United Kingdom through appropriate channels," she made a short statement.
She emphasised that during investigations or his extradition, the government of Pakistan will not violate any of the legal rights of the accused.
She however said "in the war against terrorism, we have seen cases, where people have been held for years without providing them lawyers and this can also happen in Pakistan".
"Those al Qaeda suspects, who were caught in Pakistan, and handed over to USA in the past, were not Pakistani nationals, their respective countries had refused to take them back and they had not committed any crime in Pakistan but against the United States" she added.
In reply to a question she confirmed that the British government has completed its procedure for declaring the self-proclaimed Balochistan Liberation Army as a terrorist organisation.
JOINT PATROL She said that during the joint patrolling of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Nato and Coalition forces would not cross into Pakistan and would remain on the Afghanistan side.
She read out extract from the joint statement issued at the end of the tripartite joint commission meeting, which said: "The participants discussed and agreed to a proposal to conduct co-ordinated patrol by Afghan national army, Pakistan army, Coalition forces and Nato forces, deployed in Afghan on the respective side of their borders".
Tasnim said that the Commander of US Central Command, General Abizaid is on a three day visit to Pakistan for periodical consultations with the Pakistan Military authorities.
PROFOUND PROTEST OVER LOC VIOLATIONS: Tasnim said that Pakistan has lodged a profound protest with India on two cease-fire violations of Line of Control by the Indian army in which innocent civilians were fired upon.
She said that two violations of LoC in two weeks by the Indian side is a matter of concern for us since, the cease-fire had been holding very well.
She said that President General Pervez Musharraf is likely to attend NAM summit in Havana and we believe Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is also attending the summit, it is therefore possible that they might meet at the sidelines of the summit.
AKBAR BUGTI's DEATH: Fielding questions about the death of Baloch Nationalist tribal chief, Akbar Bugti in a military action on Friday, the spokesperson said that the Interior Minister and Information Ministers have very clearly spelled out the circumstances under which Akbar Bugti died.
She made it clear that it is an internal matter of Pakistan and we do not expect any government to issue statements about this incident.
She said that "so far I have not read any statement from any country about the death of Akbar Bugti, but if was one, Foreign Office would respond immediately and added Bugti's death was not a political assassination".
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