By IANS,
London : A suspected British terrorist of Pakistani origin has been killed in a missile strike in the North Waziristan area, the BBC said Saturday quoting unconfirmed Pakistani media reports.
Birmingham-born Rashid Rauf, who had alleged links to a plot to use liquid bombs to blow up transatlantic airliners flying out from Britain, was on the run, having escaped from Pakistani captors in December 2007.
News of the plot, for which three men have been convicted in Britain, disrupted air travel around the world and led to stringent security checks that have been in place since.
Rauf was arrested in Pakistan in August 2006 at the request of American authorities but mysteriously managed to flee his police guards on his way to an extradition hearing.
Several Pakistani TV channels reported Saturday that Rauf was among five people killed by a suspected US missile strike in the North Waziristan region, but the BBC said at 0830 GMT it had been unable to independently confirm the news.
Rauf’s name cropped up in another controversial connection last year, when European human rights groups accused the British government of arranging a prisoner swap in order to win the extradition of Rauf.
British police were reported to have arrested two Baloch nationalist campaigners in London in order have Rauf extradited from Pakistan.