ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Activists of the outlawed Hizbut Tahrir escaped from their hideout moments before a raid jointly conducted by the police and other law enforcement agencies here Thursday night.

The capital police along with its Crime Investigation Department (CID) and an intelligence agency cordoned a house in Sector E-11 after getting information that the activists had been spotted there. However, when the raiding team entered the house, there was no one inside.

However, nothing objectionable was found in the house.

A police officer on the condition of anonymity said that the raid was conducted on a tip-off that the activists of the banned outfit, who were behind a series of protests and pasting of pamphlets against the government and the army in the city, were staying in the house.

They were wanted by the Kohsar police for chanting slogans and pasting pamphlets against the army at Super Market on November 11.

The police registered a case against 24 persons, including Khalid Mehmood, Taimur Khalid, Syed Khalid, Waqar Ahmed, Aqeel Arshad, Usman Nazir, Omar Farooq and Aslam, under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The police suspected that the accused had got information about the raid and escaped.

After the unsuccessful raid, the police started collecting details about the house and its owner to trace the activists, another police officer said, adding preliminary investigation suggested that the house was recently taken on rent and used by the HuT activists.

The investigators are trying to locate the house owner to get his help in reaching the people who had taken it on rent, he said.

It may be mentioned that HuT started its anti-government and anti-army activities in Islamabad last month.

Besides the protest at Super Market on November 11, scores of pamphlets against the army and its chief were also spotted pasted in and around F-8 Markaz on November 26.