Nanga Parbat attack suspect escapes from prison

Chilas attack perpetrator also flees as one militant killed, another caught


Shabbir Mir February 28, 2015
Liaquat alias Akhtar, Habibur Rehman. PHOTO: FILE

GILGIT:


A militant accused over the 2013 massacre of nine foreign climbers and their guide at a base camp of Pakistan’s second highest mountain peak, escaped from the Gilgit district jail on Friday. Another perpetrator of the notorious attack was, however, killed and a third was injured and captured as the security forces confronted them during the pre-dawn jailbreak.


Gunmen clad in paramilitary uniforms stormed the Nanga Parbat base camp in June 2013 and shot dead nine mountaineers – five Ukrainians, three Chinese and a Russian – along with their Pakistani guide in an attack that shocked the world and damaged the country’s adventure tourism industry. The little-known Janud-e-Hafsa faction of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Four militants imprisoned in the Gilgit district jail attempted to escape. They were countered by the forces but two of them succeeded in their attempt,” Home Secretary Sibtain Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “One of the inmates was killed and a second injured,” he added.



Sibtain confirmed that one of the escapees – Habibur Rehman – was an accused in the Nanga Parbat base camp massacre while the other, Liaquat, was involved in an attack on security forces in Chilas in June 2013.

According to the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) administration, at least 100 inmates were present in the prison when the jailbreak was attempted. The escaped militants were set to be tried in the military courts set up under the National Action Plan against terrorism. Sibtain identified the slain militant as Bilal and the injured as Dilbar.

Sibtain said they broke out around 2:45am and security forces have cordoned off the area and mounted a manhunt for the escapees.

According to an unofficial account, the jailbreak was coordinated and assisted from outside. Officials, however, denied this claim. “The inmates attempted the jailbreak which was almost foiled,” Sibtain told The Express Tribune.

Chief Secretary Sikandar Sultan Raja suspended IG (Prisons) Muhammad Faisal, Superintendent Jail and three other jail officials for negligence. The government also announced a cash prize of Rs2 million for information leading to the arrest of the escapees. In a late-night development, sources said the police have pinned down the escaped militants in a compound in an area 15 kilometres away from Gilgit.

According to a press release, a high-level committee has been formed to investigate the matter.

The TTP has organised several mass jailbreaks in recent years, including the April 2012 Bannu prison attack that sprung nearly 400 prisoners and the June 2013 storming of the DI Khan prison that resulted in the escape of 230 inmates, mostly Taliban.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed anger over the escape of two terrorists from a Gilgit jail. Reprimanding the G-B government over this security lapse, he directed it to fix responsibility in this important matter as the escaped terrorists had been involved in the murder of foreign tourists. He also directed the authorities concerned to bring the culprits to book.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2015. 

COMMENTS (1)

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply As long as the government insists on pruning the branches of the ' terror tree ' but ptotecting its roots......incidents like this will not stop.
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