MPs want clarity on suspect 'death'

Rashid Rauf, who escaped from custody in Pakistan last year, was suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic jets.

His relatives were said to be distraught at reports that he was among five people killed by the attack in the tribal North Waziristan region.

The British Foreign Office said it was still investigating the reports and could not confirm whether Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham, had been killed.

But Pakistan's government confirmed that Rashid Rauf and a Saudi militant called Abu Zubair al-Masri were the apparent targets of the pre-dawn strike near the border with Afghanistan.

Andrew Dismore, the Labour chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, told The Sunday Times he would ask the committee to investigate whether British intelligence services had been consulted about the attack.

"This is a very serious matter, particularly if the attack was based on intelligence provided by the British security agencies. 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 said.

"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."

Speaking to the paper, Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark and former shadow security minister, said: "This raises the question of how much co-operation 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."

Meanwhile, it emerged that members of Rauf's family were "in the dark" about his fate and were making desperate attempts to establish whether he was still alive.