ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan police said they have laid formal charges against the two officers who were escorting a British plane bombing suspect back to jail when he escaped.
Rashid Rauf, who is in his mid-20s, disappeared at the weekend when the pair took him to a restaurant and then a mosque while they were escorting him back to jail after a court apperance.
Rauf was arrested in 2006 and is suspected in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives. Reports of the plot led airlines to limit the amount of liquids passengers may carry on board.
"The two police have been arrested and charged with connivance in the escape," Islamabad police chief Shahid Nadeem Baluch told AFP.
"Investigations are under way to determine whether the two policemen were guilty of criminal negligence or actually helped the man escape," he said.
A security official said Monday that an uncle of Rauf's had also been arrested and was being questioned.
Britain has been seeking the extradition of Rauf in a 2002 murder case unrelated to the alleged plane plot.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" but critics say the country could do more to cooperate in tracking and detaining militant suspects.
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