Government seek return of terrorism suspect

10:20am Wednesday 28th March 2007

THE BRITISH Government is trying to negotiate the extradition from Pakistan of a man whose arrest sparked anti-terrorism raids in Waltham Forest last summer, it has been reported.

London and Islamabad are locked in secret negotiations to swap Rashid Ruaf, 26, who is currently being held in a high security prison in Pakistan, with up to eight people living in the UK who are suspected of being involved in an uprising in the province of Baluchistan, according to the national Guardian.

Mr Rauf, from Birmingham, was arrested by Pakistani security services last August and charged with possessing hydrogen peroxide - an ingredient which has been used by Al-Qaeda in the past to make bombs - and fake identity papers.

The arrest prompted a series of raids, including a number in Waltham Forest, with led to 15 people being charged in connection with a suspected plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.