Islamabad: President Pervez Musharraf has sought a report on the escape of terror suspect Rashid Rauf after details of police lapses that emerged today caused major embarrassment to the Pakistan government.

Police are hunting for Rauf, who escaped on Saturday after his two police guards reportedly allowed him to go into a mosque for prayers while being driven back to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi in a private car. Some reports suggested that the car was being driven by Rauf's uncle Muhammad Rafiq, who accompanied him into the mosque and disappeared along with him.

Musharraf spoke to caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan today and sought a detailed report on the escape. Khan said a high-level committee is already probing the matter and a report will be submitted by tomorrow, officials said. The President said action should be initiated against any police official found to be involved in the matter.

Police have questioned Rauf's kin at Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Federal Investigation Agency is keeping a watch on exit points across the country. Rauf has been linked to al Qaeda and is married to a relative of Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood Azhar. Rauf, a Briton of Pakistan origin, was arrested at Bhawalpur in Pakistan in August last year for allegedly being linked to a terrorist plot to bomb airliners going from Britain to the US.

A Pakistani court later dropped terrorism charges against him but he was accused of possessing bomb-making materials and fake travel and identity documents. News reports today said the two policemen assigned to guard Rauf, Constables Wazirzada and Muhammad Tufail, allowed him to travel from Islamabad, where he had been brought to appear in a court, to the jail in Rawalpindi in a private car.

Source : PTI