BRITAIN: Friends and relatives of a British terrorism suspect held at the controversial US Camp X-Ray in Cuba yesterday reacted with disbelief at the news of his detention.
Mr Shafiq Rasul (24) and Mr Asif Iqbal (20) are among the 158 detainees seized in Afghanistan and transported to the Guantanamo Bay naval base, the Foreign Office confirmed.
The two men are from Tipton, a small west Midlands village which is reportedly home to two more suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters still being held in Afghanistan. A third British detainee was named last week as Mr Feroz Abbasi (22), from Croydon, south London.
British officials who have visited the three men say they have no complaints about their treatment.
However, speaking at Mr Rasul's home in the town yesterday, a lifelong family friend, Mr Mohammed Chowdhry (73), insisted the allegations against him were false.
"He is not the sort of lad to be involved. He's never even held a rifle never mind fighting. God knows how he got there," he said.
"I do not believe these allegations. They are absolutely wrong. I have spoken to his mother this morning and she is crying and it is making her sick." Mr Chowdhry said Mr Rasul, a former law student, had gone out to Pakistan with his mother, Jamila, before disappearing six months ago.
Mrs Rasul did not know what had become of her son until the Foreign Office broke the news to her last week, he said.
The Rasul family came to Britain from Pakistan more than 35 years ago and was "one of the best in the area", according to Mr Chowdhry, who denied there was any fundamentalist group in the small town that might have offered support to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
A long-term friend of Mr Rasul, who refused to be named, said: "I have known him for 10 years - we grew up together, but I never saw a dark side to him.
"I never thought he would turn out to be one of them," he said, "if he is one of them."