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Rauf, from Ward End, Birmingham, left Britain shortly after his uncle, 54-year-old Mohammed Saeed, was stabbed to death in April 2002.

He is then thought to have been radicalised by an extremist Islamic sect.

Last December he escaped from custody outside an Islamabad court leading to embarrassment for the Pakistani authorities and considerable speculation over the ease with which he made his getaway.

During his time in Pakistan, Rauf married a relative of one of Pakistan’s most notorious militant leaders, Azhar Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad.

While Jaish has been principally focused on fighting in Indian Kashmir, some splinter groups joined al Qaeda’s cause.

There have been at least 20 similar strikes inside Pakistan in the last three months, reflecting US impatience over militants from Pakistan fuelling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and fears that al Qaeda fighters in northwest Pakistan could plan attacks in the West.

Pakistan says the attacks violate its sovereignty, undermine efforts to win public support for the fight against militancy, and make it harder to justify the US alliance.

An earlier diplomatic storm blew up after a US commando raid in early September, and there has been no incursion by ground troops since.

Rauf had been arrested in Pakistan in 2006 following an apparent tip-off from British anti-terrorism officers, days before a series of raids in the UK which were followed by the tightening of hand baggage restrictions on flights.

Eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in April accused of conspiring to smuggle home-made liquid bombs on board a series of Atlantic passenger flights.

Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, but they will face a retrial next year on a more serious charge alongside four other defendants on whom the jury did not return verdicts.

One of the defendants was acquitted following the trial.

A Foreign Office spokesman could not confirm that a British national had been killed in the incident this morning.

“We are currently investigating this at the moment, but we do not have any information,” the spokesman said.

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