Guardian : British suspect in alleged bomb plot fled after guards let him pray at mosque

British suspect in alleged bomb plot fled after guards let him pray at mosque

· Escape came during return from extradition hearing
· Pakistan government 'cringingly' embarrassed

Randeep Ramesh, south Asia correspondent | The Guardian | December 18, 2007

Rashid Rauf, the British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up passenger aircraft over the Atlantic, escaped from police guards in Pakistan by slipping out of the back door of a mosque he had been allowed to pray in, police said yesterday.

Rauf's breakout has deeply embarrassed the Pakistani government, which permitted a court to consider his extradition to Britain in connection with the murder in 2002 of his maternal uncle.

Police said Rauf, 26, went missing on the way back from the court to Adiala jail, a high-security prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, when he asked his guards to let him say afternoon prayers at a roadside mosque.

"The policemen accepted his request," an official said. "Rashid Rauf went inside the mosque with handcuffs on, but he slipped out from a rear door."

The two police officers meant to be guarding Rauf told investigators that they were waiting in a car outside the mosque when the suspect went inside.

"Letting a prisoner pray - well no one in Pakistan will argue with that. But letting him escape? There's something wrong there," said Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch.

The disappearance of a terrorism suspect also casts doubt on how effectively President Pervez Musharraf, who this weekend ended six weeks of emergency rule, can roll back the tide of militancy in the country.

Yesterday a suicide bomber, the sixth in the last two weeks, blew himself up near an army base 80 miles east of Islamabad, killing nine soldiers on their way back to base from a football match.

Western diplomats in Islamabad said that Pakistani government officials were "cringingly embarrassed" by Rauf's escape. The interior ministry has promised the British high commission that it will produce a report on the escape by tomorrow.

Rauf's uncle, Mohammed Rafique, was arrested yesterday after raids on relatives' homes amid claims he had assisted in the getaway. Another relative was also detained.

One report claimed that Rafique had accompanied the police escort and convinced the two guards to make the drive back to jail in Rafique's more comfortable van, instead of in a police vehicle.

However, Rauf's lawyer, Hashmat Habib, said that Rafique had been in the Kashmir region on Saturday and that he doubted his client had fled.

"I know Rashid Rauf was prepared to go to London," he told the Associated Press. He accused the police of covering up Rauf's "mysterious disappearance".

Habib said police commandos had escorted Rauf on earlier trips to court. "How can it happen that only two policemen were travelling with him on Saturday?"

The lawyer has also hinted to Pakistani reporters that Rauf might be in British custody. Laura Davies, a spokeswoman for the British high commission, denied that Rauf had been kidnapped and spirited out of Pakistan. "His lawyer has claimed Rauf is probably in British detention. This is not true."

Rauf grew up in Britain but returned to Pakistan in 2002. He married and settled in Pakistani Punjab. He was arrested in August 2006, prompting police raids in Britain that resulted in the arrests of two dozen people.

The alleged airliner bomb plot, in which suspects are accused of planning to use liquid explosives to blow up as many as 10 planes mid-flight from Britain to the US, caused travel chaos in Britain. Heathrow was closed and flights were cancelled for a week. A number of suspects will be tried next year.

In British security circles there lingers a suspicion that Pakistani police acted too early in arresting Rauf. At the time sources claimed more evidence could have been collected on other members of the alleged terrorist cell.

Although Pakistani police claimed to have averted an atrocity when Rauf was originally detained, he was cleared of terrorism charges last December. Other charges in Pakistan relating to forged identity papers were also withdrawn in November.

He remained in custody only to face an extradition request from Britain in connection with the killing of his maternal uncle, Mohammed Saeed, who was stabbed to death in Birmingham in April 2002.

Rauf is also tied by marriage to the founder of Jaish-e-Muhammad, or Army of Muhammad, a hardline Islamist group in Pakistan.

Banned since 2002, the group still operates openly in the country. It has been blamed for having a hand in the siege of the Red Mosque and has been accused of aiding militants fighting against the army in north-western Pakistan.