Adiala Jail authorities on Friday released British national Rangzeb Ahmed in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court (SC). Ahmed was arrested in NWFP in 2006, having been suspected for militancy. He has been in jail since then. He was held under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952, which allows indefinite detention of those suspected to be a threat to national security. A jail official told Daily Times that Ahmed had flown to London after his release. Agencies add: Ahmed was arrested by British police minutes after his plane touched down at LondonÂ’s Heathrow Airport, AP reported. Greater Manchester Police, which made the arrest, said he was being held under BritainÂ’s terrorism laws. Earlier, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Ahmed had never been charged with any crime during his year of imprisonment. Ahmed alleged that he was interrogated several times by US law enforcement personnel from unidentified agencies and interviewed by British security services during his incarceration, it said.
The Briton had denied any wrongdoing or involvement with Al Qaeda in an interview provided by intermediaries, the group’s South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said in a statement. “Rangzieb Ahmed should not be arrested or mistreated upon arrival in the UK,” the rights group said. “Ahmed maintains that he never confessed to any involvement with terrorism during the interrogation. In any case, a confession obtained under torture would have no basis in law,” Hasan added. Pakistani agents carried out the torture, the rights group said. The British High Commission in Islamabad confirmed Ahmed’s deportation. “He has been deported and is flying back to Britain,” spokesman Aidan Liddle told AFP. Pakistani authorities were not immediately available to comment. Ahmed had been involved with militant groups fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir and spent time in jail in India, the rights group said. British authorities had secured his release from India and he had returned to Britain before coming to Pakistan in 2006, it said. “He denies any subsequent involvement in militancy or any connection with the Al Qaeda network,” it added.