'Tartan Taleban' arrested as terror suspect in Pakistan

Published on Sunday 12 April 2009 22:06

A SCOTTISH Muslim convert, dubbed the "Tartan Taleban", has re-emerged in Pakistan where he has reportedly been arrested as a terror suspect.

Pakistan television paraded images of a man said to be James Alexander McLintock, who had been detained in the north-west city of Peshawar in late February.

The 44-year-old father of four, originally from Dundee, converted to Islam in his 20s but came to international attention in December 2001 when he was arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of being a foreign fighter.

Mr McLintock was released five weeks later after strenuous denials of links to terror organisations and sent back to the UK. There was no official confirmation of his latest arrest. The British High Commission in Islamabad did not return calls.

The police in Peshawar deny holding Mr McLintock, while Pakistan's Foreign Ministry claimed no knowledge of his detention. But Pakistani government sources last night told The Scotsman Mr McLintock had been detained.

Although supposedly held since February, the information about this latest arrest was only leaked by Pakistani government sources to the country's media over the weekend, and it has been suggested that it could be the result of a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat between London and Islamabad.

Twelve men – 11 Pakistani nationals and a Briton – were arrested last week after police swooped on properties in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire on Wednesday. One was released on Saturday while the rest are being held for questioning.

Sources in Pakistan's Foreign Ministry complained they were not given information on their citizens apprehended last week.

One source in Islamabad said: "This news on James McLintock should make Britain realise that it's not all one-way traffic. People (terror suspects] come from their side, too."

Mr McLintock, who changed his name to Yaqub Mohammed, had previously been detained in Manchester in 2003, but he was again released without charge.

Mike Weir, the MP who represents the Angus constituency where Mr McLintock's mother Margaret and father Iain live, had fought to have the charity worker released during his 2001 arrest.

Last night, he said he had not been approached by the McLintock family.

The Nationalist MP said: "The full facts of this arrest are not yet clear, but this is clearly upsetting news for the McLintock family, and naturally I stand ready to take matters up on behalf of my constituents as I did in 2001."

Mrs McLintock declined to comment last night.

By his own account, James McLintock was called to jihad in Afghanistan in 1988 and Bosnia in 1994. He married a Pakistani woman named Shaffia and started a family in 1995, later setting up a website called Media Watch to give the "true picture" of what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: "We are investigating reports of a British man being arrested in Pakistan. We are unable to confirm his name at this stage."