Policemen collect evidence outside the site following the brazen attack in DI Khan. PHOTO: REUTERS
Around 150 heavily armed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants freed 248 prisoners, including more than 49 hardcore militants, some belonging to the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, during a sophisticated attack on the high-security DI Khan jail.
During multiple raids today, police arrested these prisoners from five different places in the city.
The escapees are held in the jails of the areas they were arrested from and will later be shifted to the Central Jail.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak had said that strict action will be taken against those responsible for the attack and no one will be spared.
Inmates had prior knowledge of attack
In the latest update on the incident, Express News learned that the prison inmates were well aware of the attack about to be made and began gearing up for the jailbreak immediately after the first gunshot.
Reports indicate that after breaking in, the attackers stayed for a comfortable three hours inside the jail before attempting escape. Armed with guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and bombs, they then bombarded the prison before fleeing with their partners.
All the while, jail officials hid themselves in underground 'nullahs' even though only a night before, they were put through a precautionary security drill preparing them for just such an attack.
An official of the district police told The Express Tribune that “around 248 prisoners escaped from the jail, including 49 high-profile militants, six death row prisoners and five females”.
Inspector General Police (Prisons) Khalid Abbas told The Express Tribune that the terrorists stormed the jail around midnight Monday.
“They were armed with RPG-7 anti-tank rockets, heavy and medium machine guns and automatic rifles,” he said, adding that the attackers were also equipped with improvised explosive devices and attacked the building in two groups.
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shame on entire coward distt administration,high ranking coward police officials and coward jail administration. why should low rank sepoys be martyred and high ranking coward police officials disappear in hide outs. "open your eyes, you are not facing poor awam". face bravely or quit enjoying perks and privileges from the blood of poor awam.
Police hid in the underground nullahs or sewer lines while the attackers were in the Jail for three hours? Why no other agency/army could come to provide help during those three hours? Oh ... I know the answer ... there was no mobile phone coverage in the nullahs and the police was not able to call for help. I pity the security set up in Pakistan. These militants have attacked GHQ, Naval bases, ISI offices, Airforce bases etc and can do so at will and with great success.
Congrats ! No doubt next month another attack and whatever is left in the Jail will be released too ! Do people realise as to impact of this event, as to the national standing on Global Stage ? Its obvious that Pakistan can not even deal with such matters within its Jails, let alone handling their so called " Sovereign Territory " ! Time to wake up people. These are no longer your strategic assets nor your friends, they have different agendas and have become extremely ambitious too. Its obvious that Pakistan is simply not capable of dealing with the assets they created, please ask Uncle Sam to come and deal with them, they just may oblige as they too are concerned with Nukes as is rest of the Global Community !
The issue is not those 45 petty criminals re-arrested. TPP have succeeded as always in taking what they wanted, their 49 hardcore militants.
@Water Bottle: Agree. The people that actually escaped must already be safely ensconced in NWA by now - well out of the reach of KPK police. This is just some poor innocents who have been arrested to save face for Parvez Khattak.
The govt of kpk must accept it as their deliberate negligence as they had prior information for the incident at all levels. At least they should take responsibility.
I don't get it why were they holding them. They should be hanged once they are caught.
I will not be surprised if a big number of these 45 arrested are innocent people, just to save their own faces.
Don't kpk police in particular have helicopters especially apache/assault for backup during high level ambush? what have we gained from all this coalition support fund,not even converting assault from conventional to modern warfare practices.
good.Police should also struggle for remaining 203.