Musharraf fugitive 'in air force'

The president survived two attacks in December 2003

A fugitive accused of trying to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been confirmed as a member of the air force.

Mushtaq Ahmed, who escaped from military detention in Rawalpindi, is a suspect in the failed assassination attempt on 14 December 2003.

The president survived two attacks within days of each other, both on the road between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Mr Ahmed, 26, is a "uniformed junior rank officer", the air force said.

Some army sources say Mr Ahmed had been sentenced to death by a military court days before he escaped.

But other sources say the trial was still going on and that no verdict had been announced.

It has also not been confirmed when Mr Ahmed escaped. Some reports say he has been on the run since November.

The authorities have accused him of being a member of a banned militant group. They say he escaped by smashing a bathroom window.

Suspended

President Musharraf has been a target for Islamic militants since joining the US-led "war on terror" following the attacks of 11 September 2001.

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says the escape of a man regarded as a prime suspect in the attacks is a huge embarrassment for the authorities.

A remote bomb exploded just after Musharraf's convoy had passed

Air force spokesman, Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad, confirmed on Wednesday that Mr Ahmed was a "uniformed junior rank officer".

Commodore Ahmad said guards at the detention facility had been suspended.

"This criminal escaped from custody and we hope that we will arrest him. He was a key figure in the 14 December 2003 attack on President Musharraf," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

He said a huge manhunt was under way.

All airports and other exit points have been put on high alert and Mr Ahmed's photographs have been despatched to border posts to foil any attempt by him to slip out of the country.

Several other low-ranking officers of the air force and army were arrested along with Mr Ahmed and a number of other civilians following the attacks.

Mr Ahmed and the other arrested armed forces officials were being tried by a field court marshal.

Death sentence

President Musharraf survived the 14 December attack thanks, apparently, to electronic jamming devices which blocked a signal to a remote-controlled bomb.

The blast destroyed a bridge minutes after his motorcade had passed over it. No one was hurt.

Eleven days later two suicide bombers tried to ram explosive-laden vehicles into the president's limousine, killing 17 people.

One soldier has been sentenced to death and another given a 10-year jail sentence for their role in the first of the attacks on the president.