Pervez Musharraf

Karachi, Jan. 11 (Reuters): An Islamic militant detained for an assassination attempt on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf escaped by smashing a bathroom window at his military detention centre before morning prayers, security sources said today.

The jailbreak occurred several weeks ago, the sources said. Pakistani authorities, clearly embarrassed that a prisoner convicted of such a serious crime had managed to escape, had kept the security lapse secret.

Mushtaq Ahmed had been sentenced to death in late November for his role in the plot to kill Musharraf, who is also chief of army staff, said one security official. No official announcement has been made on his trial.

?He made good his escape while going to the bathroom to make ablutions for pre-dawn prayers,? one security official said. ?He broke a window in the bathroom and escaped.?

Guards at an air force detention centre in the garrison city of Rawalpindi where Ahmed was being held have been detained for questioning, said one intelligence source.

Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed confined himself to a terse statement, saying a nationwide search was under way for the runaway prisoner.

?I confirm that Mushtaq Ahmed has escaped from custody of the air force police,? the minister said, saying Ahmed was involved in the first of two assassination attempts on Musharraf in December, 2003.

Some intelligence sources say Ahmed, 26, escaped within days of being sentenced. Other officials say his jailbreak took place in December.

Last month, a military court convicted two low-ranking army officers on charges of involvement in the December 14, 2003, assassination attempt. The trial of up to four other junior army officers and six air force officers was under way.

Militants blew up a bridge in the northern city of Rawalpindi minutes after Musharraf?s motorcade passed. Electronic jamming devices in the President?s car blocked a remote control signal that detonated the bomb.

Ahmed was an explosives expert and provided materials for the blast, said one intelligence source.

Days later Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war in terror, survived a second assassination attempt orchestrated by al Qaida on the same stretch of road leading into the garrison city from an airport shared with the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan?s military establishment is sensitive to talk of any dissent against Musharraf within its ranks, and admissions of involvement by officers in the assassination attempt followed early denials of army involvement.

Al Qaida leaders have made Musharraf a marked man since he gave support to the US-led war on terror after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Considerable uncertainty exists over who would emerge as a long-term successor should an assassin succeed.

Pakistani Islamist militant groups with links to al Qaida have carried out a spate of attacks on the country?s leaders, western targets and minorities over the last three years.