Two British lawmakers urged the government yesterday to reveal whether it knew in advance about a US missile attack in Pakistan that is believed to have killed the alleged mastermind of a bombing plot, Rashid Rauf.
Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Dismore, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, will ask the scrutiny body to probe whether British intelligence services had been consulted about the missile strike, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
“This is a very serious matter, particularly if the attack was based on intelligence provided by the British security agencies,” said the member of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party.
“We can investigate whether British security services had involvement in providing intelligence concerning British nationals in Pakistan. I anticipate this is a matter the committee might like to follow up,” he told the newspaper. “If there is any suggestion of complicity of the UK security services in this particular incident then that is certainly something we would want to take into account in our work on this subject.”
MP Patrick Mercer, the main opposition Conservative Party’s former security spokesman, told the newspaper: “This raises the question of how much cooperation the British intelligence agencies provided in what is ultimately the execution of a British subject.”
“The government must explain its involvement and its future policy in this area,” he said.
The Foreign Office said on Saturday it was probing the reports that Rauf had been killed.
“We are currently investigating this at the moment, but we do not have any information,” a spokesman said.
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