/asia
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police in Pakistan are searching for a man linked to an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners who escaped over the weekend from police custody.
Rashid Rauf reportedly slipped out of his handcuffs after appearing in court in islamabad.
Rashid Rauf, 25, who has joint British and Pakistani nationality, escaped Saturday as he was being taken to a court in Islamabad for an extradition hearing, a Pakistani police source said.
Two police officers who were accompanying the suspect at the time of his escape have been arrested and are being interrogated, the police source told CNN.
Britain is seeking Rauf's extradition on charges stemming from the 2002 murder of his uncle in Birmingham, England.
British security sources last year identified Rauf as the leader of the group that allegedly plotted to simultaneously blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the United States.
After details of the allegations emerged in August 2006, Rauf was picked up in central Pakistan.
More than 20 suspects are being held in Britain in connection with the case.
Last December, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan threw out terrorism charges against Rauf.
Although an order to dismiss the charges was suspended after the Punjab government appealed, intelligence sources in Pakistan told CNN that no "concrete" evidence had emerged tying Rauf to the alleged plot.
Rauf has denied involvement in the alleged conspiracy.
A spokesman for the British Foreign Office said they were in contact with Pakistani authorities, who were calling the search a "priority." E-mail to a friend 
CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi in Lahore contributed to this report
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