Dear Home Secretary,

We are urgently writing to you today to express our concerns and the concerns of many of our constituents, at the decision to hand over to the UK Border Agency for deportation, the 11 Pakistani nationals arrested earlier this month on suspicion of terrorism offences.

We, along with many of our constituents were amazed, shocked and indeed worried to learn that the police have been unable to present sufficient evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service on which it could lay charges against any of the 12 men arrested. Especially when these young men were initially described by both the Government and the Police as having been involved in a serious terrorist plot, and were arrested in such dramatic circumstances.

Furthermore, we find it deeply disturbing and gravely unjust that these young men, all of whom have been released without charge, are now to face immediate deportation and therefore will be unable to continue their legitimate academic studies which they should lawfully be entitled to complete. It is a very sad day when the innocent are no longer considered innocent in this country until proven guilty.

Incidents such as this do irreparable damage to the vital race relations work that is being done and has been done by the Government and leaders of ethnic minority communities, both at home in this country and abroad.

We have received countless telephone calls from members of the Pakistani Community urging us to do all that we can to intervene in this matter, all of whom very understandably feel let down by the security forces and worry about the damage it has undoubtedly caused.

We feel tremendously disappointed and hugely saddened by these events. There is no doubt that the security services must act upon intelligence and seek to defend fellow citizens. At the same time they must ensure that adequate evidence is available otherwise such events only make the task of defending our great country even harder. An important strand of counter-terrorism must be about winning the hearts and minds as well as the confidence of Britain's Muslim community. Events such as these undermine this effort.

We would greatly appreciate an urgent response and clarification on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Mohammad Sarwar MP
Member of Parliament for Glasgow Central

Khalid Mahmood MP
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Bar