LONDON, July 16: A British medical student’s alleged torture by Pakistani intelligence agency in collusion with British intelligence officers after the July 2005 suicide bombings in London is under investigation here on the complaint of a Labour MP who claims the student is his constituent.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) which is looking into the complaint routinely conducts investigations into the affairs of the MI5 and MI6.

The MP, John McDonnell, has complained that the student was picked up by a Pakistani intelligence agency and tortured for two months in a building opposite the British deputy high commission in Karachi.

On his release, he was questioned by British intelligence officers, believed to be from the Security Service, MI5, after he had been tortured. McDonnell believes that British officials “outsourced” his mistreatment to the Pakistani agency, and wanted the IPT to examine the matter.

Earlier this year four British nationals claimed they were mistreated after being detained by Pakistani intelligence agents and that they were questioned by British intelligence officers, between or after torture sessions.

One has since been convicted of terrorism offences after being returned to the UK, a second is awaiting trial, and a third absconded.

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that three other Britons --- including McDonnell’s constituent --- had also alleged that they were mistreated after being detained in Pakistan, and were eventually released without charge.

MI5 asked the Home Office to issue a statement which said: “The Security and Intelligence Agencies do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhumane or degrading treatment. For reasons both ethical and legal, their policy is not to carry out any action which they know would result in torture or inhumane or degrading treatment.”

The Guardian report on Wednesday said it was unclear how many Britons had been held in Pakistan for questioning during counterterrorism investigations in recent years. Earlier this year the Foreign Office responded to a parliamentary question on the issue from a Tory MP, by saying there were six such cases since 2000. But the Guardian said it was aware that there had been at least 11, and there were unconfirmed reports that there might have been more.

Some of the detainees received no assistance from British consular officials. The Foreign Office maintains that it had no duty to represent them while they were in Pakistan as they had dual nationality.

The men’s lawyers said this claim was undermined by the strenuous efforts that British diplomats made on behalf of the 200-plus dual nationals forced into marriage in Pakistan each year.

When the Tory MP asked about MI5’s ability to visit and question detainees to whom consular officials claim to have been denied access, Kim Howells, the Foreign Office minister, replied: “Priority was given to the welfare of the detainees.”

A number of the detainees themselves deny this, saying that the British intelligence officers who interviewed them appeared to ignore their complaints that they were being tortured.