On the loose: Brazen jailbreak

Taliban free 384 prisoners including Musharraf assassination plotter from Bannu prison.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ BANNU: Nearly 400 inmates, including some hardcore Taliban militants, escaped on Sunday after dozens of heavily-armed insurgents launched a brazen attack on a prison in Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Police confirmed that Adnan Rashid – a former junior technician of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf – was among the 384 prisoners who escaped from the Bannu Central Jail.

The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and said that most freed prisoners have reached ‘their destination’.

“The attackers were over 200 in number. Some of them fired rocket-propelled grenades at the metal gates of the prison, blowing them open for their comrades to storm the building,” a police official told The Express Tribune.

“Some of the assailants were in vehicles, while the rest were on foot. They were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket launchers,” added another policeman who was guarding the prison gates at the time of the attack. “As they made their way into the building they started firing randomly.”

Debris was strewn on the ground inside the prison including locks that had been shot off doors. Walls were pockmarked with bullet holes.

Local residents said that the militants also blasted the boundary wall of the prison to help their comrades escape. Officials said that the attackers had brought vans and lorries to ferry their escaping colleagues.

A senior police official confirmed that out of a total of 944 prisoners in the jail, 384, some of them most-wanted criminals, escaped. “Twenty of them were on death row. And five women were also among them,” the official said.

But the provincial police chief believes the militants had come to get Adnan. “Apparently the attack was planned to get Adnan released,” Akbar Khan Hoti, the inspector-general of police, told journalists outside the prison.

Another police official endorsed IG Hoti. “When the attackers stormed into the prison they asked only one question: ‘Where is Adnan?’” the official, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune.

“The attackers were tall, sturdy, bearded men. They were wearing joggers and spoke different languages,” he added.

One of the prisoners said that the raiders broke open the locks of their cells and told the inmates to flee. “Most of the inmates fled – but some of us did not dare, fearing danger outside,” he added.

Another prisoner added that the attackers shot the lock off Adnan’s cell and escorted him out while firing heavily into the air.

IG Hoti’s deputy said the militants had meticulously planned the attack. “First they blocked Link Road and Kohat Road to stop possible reinforcements and then mounted the attack,” Iftikhar Ahmad, the deputy inspector general of police, told journalists.

He added that the attackers and prisoners fled to the Frontier Region, which is a buffer between Bannu district and the North Waziristan  tribal region.

Later in the evening a senior Taliban commander claimed that around 150 prisoners reached Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan, where they were received with jubilation.

“We rejoiced at their return with lots of celebratory firing and presented them with our honourable turbans,” the Taliban commander told The Express Tribune.

A TTP spokesperson claimed responsibility for the jailbreak. “Some 150 fidayeen (suicide bombers) took part in the attack in which we freed hundreds of our comrades,” Asimullah Mehsud told The Express Tribune by phone from an unknown location.

Provincial Minister for Prisons Mian Nisar Gul, however, claimed that 34 prisoners were arrested from Karak and Bannu while they were fleeing.

He conceded that the provincial police force could not confront the heavily-armed Taliban insurgents – one, because they had no combat experience, and two, because they are poorly-equipped.

Gul added that they have formed a team to investigate the incident.

While the Taliban in Afghanistan have staged several jailbreaks, such attacks are rare in Pakistan. It could be a psychological blow to security forces following repeated government assertions that security crackdowns have weakened militant groups.

The TTP, a conglomerate of militant groups of different hues, was formed in 2007 following a bloody commando raid on Lal Masjid in Islamabad.

The assault, ordered by Pervez Musharraf, was widely seen as the event that sparked a full-blown Taliban insurgency in the country. TTP militants, in revenge, carried out attacks on Musharraf, though unsuccessful.

Adnan Rashid, who escaped in Sunday’s jailbreak, was the alleged mastermind of one such plot.

(Read: K-P govt to sequester terrorists in new high security prison facilities)

(With additional input from agencies)

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2012.