According to Pakistani authorities, a British terrorist suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners escaped Saturday after he was allowed to pray in a mosque on his way back to jail. Police started a manhunt to track him down.

Rashid Rauf is a British citizen of Pakistani origin. He managed to escape after he was returning from a court judge in Islamabad where he was for an extradition hearing regarding another murder investigation in Britain.

He was escorted by two police officers in a private cab. They were detained and questioned for possible attempt to help him.

Syed Kalim Imam, the head of the investigation team and Senior Superintendent Police, Islamabad said: "The detained policemen told us that they were going back to the jail with the suspect in a private cab, when Rauf requested them to allow him to say noon prayers at a roadside mosque," DPA reports.

Rauf entered the mosque with his handcuffs and the two policemen waited him in the cab. After 20 minutes they have realized that he escaped through the back door.

According to media reports, it was suggested that he managed to get rid of his handcuffs and overcome his escorts.

Imam said: “We have suspicions that the escape was the result of a police conspiracy, starting with the fact that a private cab was used to escort the accused instead of a police van.”

According to a British counterterrorism official, his escape is a blow due to the fact that he was a source of intelligence and evidence in the court for the case of the blow of the airlines, the Seattle Times informs.

Raids were made by police to his relatives’ house and his two uncles were arrested, in Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad, for questioning.

In August 2006 Rauf was arrested on suspicion to a plot to blow up jetliners flying from Britain to the United States.

He was charged of having chemicals that could be used for explosives and for false documents, but later they were dropped by a Paksitani court.

Another detention order was issued by the government under a Maintenance of Public Order law to keep him at Adiala Jail until January. By that time the court would have decided about his extradition in Britain regarding the murder of his uncle in 2002.

Authorities launched a manhunt in the region.

His lawyer Hashmad Habib, said that he thinks his client had not escaped.

He said: "It's a case of a 'mysterious disappearance.' He did not need to escape and I don't believe that he did."