PESHAWAR, Aug 15: A suspected Al Qaeda operative was killed while another escaped after a shootout with police in the posh Hayatabad residential locality on Thursday, security officials said.

The operation ‘Evening Star’ began when police from the Criminal Investigation Department backed up by armoured personnel carriers, Khasadars and Frontier Corps raided a small house situated about five metres from the barbed fence dividing Peshawar from the tribal area late in the afternoon.

The operation was launched following a tip by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency that a group of Afghan terrorists were hiding in the house, an official said.

The operation began at around 4.30pm and ended at around 8pm, the official said.

The suspected Al Qaeda operative who was killed in the shootout was identified as Abdur Rehman, son of Muhammad. He was a Libyan national. A stocky figure in mid-thirties, Abdur Rehman had married a Pakistani girl, Khadija about three months ago.

Visibly shaken and terrified, 13-year-old Khadija later surrendered to the police. She had received a bullet in her right hand and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

She was handed over to her relatives on Friday afternoon after interrogations by security agencies. “She was not required and was therefore allowed to go with her relatives,” an official familiar with the case said.

Security agencies, however, have launched a hunt for the man who managed to escape and crossed over into the adjoining tribal area.

A senior official said they were looking for Suleman, an Egyptian national, who is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is carrying a reward money of $100,000.

A man with one arm, Suleman carried different aliases. Officials who have seen documents recovered from the house said Suleman used Ayub as his last name.

His Afghan passport had the name of Qari Mohammad Ayub, a card issued to him by the Al Badr mujahideen outfit in Peshawar identified him as Mohammad Ayub, while another card had the name of Mujahid Mohammad Ayub printed on it.

Khadija said she knew the Egyptian as Ayub only. “He used to visit our house frequently. There were other Arabs as well who would come to meet my husband. But he was the most frequent visitor,” she told Dawn after her release.

She said they had moved into their new house about a month and a half ago after a friend of her husband was captured by the local authorities and handed over to the Americans.

“He is now in Guantanamo Bay,” she said of her husband’s friend.

She said she knew her husband and his friends were wanted by the Americans.

The officials said the Criminal Investigation Department police lobbed dozens of teargas shells into the house to force the inmates to come out. “We didn’t know anything about the house or the number of people inside. We didn’t know whether there were any women and children inside or what type of weapons the militants had,” a CID official said.

The officials said they offered the inmates a peaceful surrender but their offer was turned down. “Say Bismillah and Allah-o-Akbar and shoot me here,” Suleman told negotiators, pointing to his neck. “I would rather die than go to Guantanamo Bay,” he told the two police officials.

At one point, he asked the negotiators to offer their afternoon prayers to rid themselves of the influence of devil. “Go and offer your prayers. May be you will rid yourselves of the influence of Shaitan,” one official quoted him as saying.

Police said the talks collapsed when Abdur Rehman came out of the house and hurled hand-grenades at them. Personnel of the CID police, who had taken position atop nearby houses and in one of the APCs and were equipped with anti-aircraft guns, returned the fire, killing Abdur Rehman on the spot.

In the meantime, Suleman escaped to the bordering tribal area taking advantage of the smoke produced as a result of explosions and gunfire.

A search has been launched for him in the tribal territory, the official added.