ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The Interior Ministry rejected on Monday claims by the lawyer for British suspect Rashid Rauf that his client, who escaped from police custody, was being secretly held by the authorities.

Rauf disappeared on Dec 14 while being escorted by two police officers along with his uncle on way to a restaurant. The two officers have since been formally charged.

Rauf’s lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that his vanishing act last month “wasn’t an escape from custody... You could call it a ‘mysterious disappearance’ if you like, but not an escape”. Arrested in Pakistan in 2006, Rauf is a suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners with liquid explosives. Reports of the plot led airlines to limit the amount of liquid passengers may carry on board.

Mr Habib repeated the allegations when contacted by AFP.

“This is not a case of escape. Rashid Rauf in fact disappeared and the government later came out with different stories every time,” the lawer said.

But Interior Ministry spokesman Brig Javed Cheema dismissed the claims.

“There is no truth in reports that Rashid Rauf is being secretly held by the authorities. This is not correct, this is nonsense,” Brig Cheema told AFP.

“The way he was implicated and tried as well as other turn of events showed that the government was not interested in extraditing him to Britain,” Mr Habib said.

“Rauf was not involved in any act of terror and I proved it in the court.

He disappeared mysteriously like thousands of other Pakistanis”.—AFP