Family pleads for return of Briton.
Byline: Helen WilliamsTHE brothers of a Briton being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay today denied any suggestions that he was a terrorist.
Shafiq Rasul, 24, is one of three Britons at the detention centre in Cuba after being seized in Afghanistan.
But speaking on BBC Breakfast, Rasul's older brothers, Murtza and Habib, said they had no idea how he came to be in Afghanistan and pleaded for his return.
They said Rasul, from Tipton, West Midlands, went to Pakistan in October for a Microsoft engineering course and had, at first, remained in regular contact with his family.
However they lost contact in December. They heard nothing more until last Monday when the Foreign Office told them he had been picked up in Afghanistan by the Americans.
Rasul's neighbour and friend Asif Iqbal, 20, is also being held in Cuba.
Habib said: "We do not know how he got to Afghanistan. He is just a Black Country lad. He cannot even speak Punjabi properly. All we know is that he went to Pakistan. We do not why he has gone to Afghanistan. This has come as a shock to everyone."
Murtza said reports that his brother had been in a gang in Tipton and carried a gun at school were untrue.
He added: "He was never involved with anyone or a member of a gang. He never expressed any radical views.
"There are things in the newspapers saying he did this and did that. He is nothing like that - he is a very, very nice person."
Murtza last night suggested his brother could have been "brainwashed", adding: "This has been like going to hell and back."
Habib said his younger brother should be returned for the sake of their disabled mother Jamila, who was still mourning the death of their young nephew in December.
He told the BBC he thought the conditions his brother was now being held in were appalling.
"My mother can't even look at the screen because she is just crying and crying and crying. She is already disabled and it's just making her life hell. It's making all the family's life hell."
The brothers said they wanted assurances from the Red Cross that Shafiq was in good health.
The pair again expressed how shocked they were when Foreign Office officials contacted them to say Shafiq was being held.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales) |
|---|---|
| Date: | Jan 28, 2002 |
| Words: | 394 |
| Previous Article: | World in brief. |
| Next Article: | 'We weren't told Sully plans' - Ty Hafan boss. |