A British surgeon who was due to stand trial for assault has fled the country and become a senior leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.
Mirza Tariq Ali, 39, who practised in the NHS, evaded the UK authorities despite having his passport taken from him while awaiting trial at the Old Bailey.
He resurfaced last week in a recruitment video for a Taliban splinter group, urging foreign jihadists to join him.
The doctor has become a mouthpiece for the terrorist organisation and under a new name — Dr Abu Obaidah Al-Islamabadi — has begun publishing an English-language jihadist magazine online, aimed at recruiting Muslim youths from the West.
Ali, who lived in Walthamstow, east London, arrived in Britain in 2004, having previously been a doctor in the Pakistan army. He worked shifts as a locum surgeon in London and Cambridge, having trained at a London teaching hospital.
Police and security services are now facing embarrassing questions over how he was able to flee. The surgeon is one of a growing number of known extremists who have skipped bail or surveillance to wage “holy war” abroad. » | Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter, Robert Verkaik and Duncan Gardham | Saturday, November 15, 2014
