RAWALPINDI, Dec 2: About two dozen gunmen snatched murder accused Farrukh Khokhar from a prison van in broad daylight here on Monday and fled, leaving the city police panting and red faced.

Police sources said that the prison van was taking Farrukh, his brother Umar and two other accused back to the Adiala Central Jail when the gunmen, traveling in three vehicles, ambushed it close to the jail around 1:40pm and freed Farrukh “without a shot fired”.

A police armoured carrier, carrying Farrukh’s father and co-accused Imtiaz Khokhar, better known as Taji Khokhar, was traveling ahead of the prison van.

About the same time the dare devil drama was underway, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to land at the nearby Nur Khan airbase and later travel to Islamabad, heightening the worries of the police.

Embarrassed police officers hastily alerted the police all over the city to be on the look out of the escaped prisoner and the gunmen.

“Police and airport authorities across the country have been asked to prevent Farrukh from leaving the country,” SP Potohar Division said.

“If he does flee the country, we will catch him through Interpol,” he added.

Taji Khokhar, his two sons and aides Ramazan and Hashim are being tried for the murder of a woman in a land dispute in August 2012.

They were taken to the court of civil judge Qasir Hussain Maral on Monday for proceedings regarding the recovery of murder weapon.

However, the dramatic escape of Farrukh has turned the spotlight on the police instead.

Late in the evening the city police hunting for Farrukh raided the family’s residence on the airport road but did not find him there.

SSP Operation Mian Maqbool blamed both police and the jail authorities for the fiasco.

“Neither the jail authorities properly informed the concerned police that dangerous prisoners were being transported, nor did the police intimate the security branch that it called for extra security,” he said.

On previous occasions, two elite force vehicles used to escort Taji Khokhar and his sons, the officer recalled.

“But no elite force squad was provided on Monday.”

City Police Officer Akhtar Umar Lalika told Dawn that SI Muhammad Akhtar and constables Sadaf, Fiaz, Shafqat and Zahid Hussain, who were escorting ‘the dangerous prisoner’ have been arrested after registering a case against them.

A departmental inquiry has also been launched to ascertain the circumstances in which the prisoner was sprung out of police custody.

“Anybody else found guilty in the escape drama will be brought to justice,” assured CPO Lalika.

Taji Khokhar, a brother of former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Nawaz Khokhar and big player in property business, was present when Sabira Bibi was gunned down at a disputed landsite in Dhoke Gangal on August 17, 2012.

The incident occurred as a commission, headed by advocate Raja Samiul Haq Satti, was trying to resolve the land dispute.

Her husband Raja Yaqoob named 13 people as murder suspects in the FIR registered with the Airport police.

A joint investigation team, which investigated the murder, found 22 people guilty including Taji Khokhar and five policemen.