ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: The alleged mastermind of a plot to carry out a suicide attack in the capital escaped from his Rawalpindi hideout, sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

Islamabad police on Saturday had claimed to have seized a car laden with 170kg of explosives brought from the tribal areas to hit key installations in the city.

According to sources, the police were tipped off that the mastermind of the terror plot was hiding in Gulshan Dadan locality of Rawalpindi. In response, the Crime Investigation Department raided the locality.

However, when the police team arrived at the place, the accused had already slipped away.

He was said to be affiliated with Punjabi Taliban.

The police picked a man from the place on suspicion of his link with the mastermind and brought him to Islamabad.

Besides, the police also rounded up four other suspects from the twin cities.

During interrogation of the suspects, it transpired that the accused had planned to hit high-profile targets in the red zone.

The suicide bomber, who was to drive the explosive-laden car, was about to reach Islamabad from Waziristan when the vehicle was tracked down in the city, the sources said.

They also said it was yet to be established which outfit - Punjabi Taliban or Mullah Nazir group of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TPP) - was behind the plot.

Scores of messages were retrieved from a laptop recovered from the vehicle.

“The messages were in code words but majority of them have been decoded,” they added.

The messages contained details of meetings held between the accused persons. There were also mentions of the meeting points, including worship places.