Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao claimed that "he is an al Qaeda operative with linkages in Afghanistan".
In December 2006, the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi found no evidence that he had been involved in terrorist activities, and his charges were downgraded to forgery and possession of explosives.
Rauf was married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, who is the head and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamist militant group in Pakistan.
[7] While CIA and Pakistan intelligence officials maintained that Rauf was killed in the airstrike,[8] the news site Long War Journal believed otherwise.
He was accused of some heinous crimes and without any trial, judge or jury he was blown to pieces by a unmanned Predator drone aircraft controlled by a soldier sitting thousands of miles away in the US.
[15] In 2011 German authorities detained a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin on his arrival in Berlin, a body search discovered memory devices, with more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.
[citation needed] 22 August: In Pakistan, law enforcement authorities continued to interrogate Rauf over his role in the plot.
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said British police were conducting inquiries in Pakistan but were not involved in questioning Rauf.
[21] 26 August: Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said Rauf had "wider international links" and was in touch with an Afghanistan-based al-Qaida leader.
[7] 8 April 2009: British security sources claim Rauf was the mastermind behind an alleged terror cell, the members of which were arrested in North West England.
[30] 27 October 2012: Rauf's family confirmed that he was killed in a US drone strike and announced that they planned to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the British government, accusing them of assisting the US in organising the attack.