British government want to deport the students to cover up mistakes

A senior Pakistan diplomat Wednesday accused Britain of denying consular access to Pakistani students arrested over an alleged Al-Qaeda-driven terror plot.

Twelve men, including 11 Pakistanis — 10 in Britain on student visas — and a Briton, were arrested in raids across northwest England last Wednesday. One man has been released without charge.

“We approached the British authorities that since they’re citizens of Pakistan, their families are worried here, we would like to offer them consular service,” Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain, told here. “They came back to us and they said that the home department’s lawyer… talked to them and the boys have refused to take consular service.

“Our reply to this was that ‘you better ask those boys to write to us that they don’t want our consular service and then we’ll stop, we’ll tell their parents that they don’t want their service,’” said Hasan. “In case they don’t do it and if we have to believe your word, then your lawyer should give it to us in writing. So they have not given that,” he said.

Hasan told: “Usually the British act very soberly. They leaked out this story in such a way that they were convicted even before trial.” He accused the British government of wanting to deport the students to cover up mistakes and said Britain had given Pakistan no evidence against them. “If they are innocent, then they should tender an apology and they should not be punished for their appearances, for sporting beards and all that,” he said.

Britain and Pakistan have traded accusations over fighting terror, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for greater assistance from Pakistan in rooting out extremists. Hasan has urged Britain to do more to tighten up its borders and visa regulations.

Watch Todays Bolta Pakistan on the same issue of arrested students.