A British surgeon who was due to stand trial for assault has fled UK and become a senior leader of the Taliban in Pakistan and released a video wherein he is urging foreign fighter to join Taliban and overthrow the Pakistani government, the Telegraph reported.
Mirza Tariq Ali, 39, who was part of the British National Health Service (NHS), reportedly evaded UK authorities despite having his passport taken from him while awaiting trial at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as Old Bailey. He resurfaced last week in a recruitment video for a Taliban splinter group, urging foreign jihadists to join him, the foreign news outfit reported.
The doctor has reportedly become a mouthpiece for the terrorist organisation and under a new name – Dr Abu Obaidah al Islamabadi — has begun publishing an English language magazine online which is aimed at recruiting Muslim youth from the West for the purpose of jihad.
The UK police and security services are now reportedly facing embarrassing questions over how he was able to flee, the surgeon being one of a growing number of known extremists who have skipped bail or surveillance to wage “holy war” outside UK.
Ali had been held twice by the UK police and in November 2013 was briefly imprisoned for breaching his bail before evading the Metropolitan Police and MI5 and travelling outside UK.
He reportedly slipped out of Britain in an attempt to travel to Syria to join Islamic State (IS), according to his video, while awaiting his trial at the Old Bailey on a violent disorder charge.
He was sentenced in his absence in June 2014 to 15 months in jail.
According to the report, Ali, who lived in Walthamstow, east London, arrived in Britain in 2004, having previously served as a doctor in the Pakistan army. He worked shifts as a locum surgeon in London and Cambridge, having trained at a London teaching hospital.
Ali was charged with violent disorder last year after taking part in a demonstration calling for jihad in Syria, organised by the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun. He was seen hitting a bystander repeatedly with the pole from a placard.
Ali was rearrested for breaking his bail conditions by taking part in two more extremist rallies. He was ordered to surrender his passport before a trial set for May. Instead of going to court, he fled the country.
Last week — six months after he fled — Ali reportedly came out of hiding to appear in the Taliban recruitment video. In the 13-minute broadcast, he called on foreign fighters to join the Taliban and overthrow the Pakistani government.
In the Taliban video, Ali says that he was detained in Croatia and deported to Pakistan rather than being sent back to Britain to serve a prison sentence. It is unclear why he was in Croatia. He reportedly describes his comfortable life in Britain before leaving to join Jamatul Ahrar (JA), a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Reportedly speaking in Urdu and English, Ali says he studied surgery from 2004 while also preaching Islam. He says that while trying to join IS, he was arrested somewhere on the way and jailed in Croatia.
After his release from Croatia, Ali says he was deported to Pakistan where “after some difficulties” he has now joined JA.
Ali was erased from the medical register at a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing earlier this month in Manchester.
He is reportedly the second Islamist associated with al-Muhajiroun and its leader Anjem Choudary to make a mockery out of police surveillance.
Last week it was disclosed that Siddhartha Dhar, 31, left Britain less than 24 hours after being freed on police bail by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Choudary’s inner circle. Dhar had been ordered to surrender his passport under strict conditions designed to prevent him promoting al-Muhajiroun, but still managed to leave the UK.
The Sunday Telegraph has disclosed that another man, a suspected terrorist believed to have been plotting a suicide bomb attack outside UK, fled from UK in recent months in the back of a lorry despites having his passport seized on the orders of the British home secretary.
The 26-year-old was of Somali origin and lived a few streets from UK Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, in north London. He also reportedly had known associations with terror organisations, dating back to 2008.
Alex Carlile QC, the UK government’s former independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, has said that the country’s authorities needed tighter controls on terror suspects.
“It’s obviously a matter of great concern that people have left the jurisdiction and evaded British justice in this way,” he reportedly said. “It may be difficult for the police to keep tabs on everyone but clearly more needs to be done.
“One has got to ask the question, why was he (Ali) granted bail for a second time?
“When someone is asked to surrender their passport, police must check with the Passport Agency to make sure he hasn’t been given a second one.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to prevent British jihadists from returning by cancelling their passports for two years, but the case of Ali highlights the damage that can be done abroad by extremists unfettered by British laws.
