Some 47 senior Taliban commanders freed; 125 TTP men took part in operation. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
A senior Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander on Saturday revealed the details of the brazen attack on Dera Ismail Khan jail earlier this week. Some 254 prisoners escaped from the prison on July 29 when it was attacked by heavily armed Taliban fighters.
“We managed to free 47 senior Taliban leaders,” said the TTP commander, who claimed he was part of attack’s planning phase. They included Abdul Hakeem, Waleed Akbar, Haji Riaz (the TTP president for Dera Ismail Khan), Mansoor and Ahmed Bajauri, and a senior TTP leader from Pishta Kharra area in Peshawar, he added.
“A total of 125 men took part in the operation,” the commander revealed on condition of anonymity.
“The fighters were divided into separate groups, one of whom was reserved for back up… a ten-man group was assigned the task of gathering intelligence, while a group of 25 men, including 18 equipped with night-vision, stormed the jail in the initial phase,” he revealed.
“Another 25 men were deployed outside the jail to guide the prisoners to vehicles and while 25 more were tasked with transporting them out of the city,” he added. A 25-man group was also deployed on the road to respond to any security forces movement and another 25 men were reserved for backup, the commander explained.
According to him, the operation was launched by three groups – the Punjabi Taliban, the Halqa-e-Mehsud and a group from the Mohmand tribal region. He said all three groups arranged the finances for the operation.
Meanwhile, the commander said all the freed TTP men were in safe locations and would resume their routine responsibilities.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2013.
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Not having night vision spectacles but having Atom bomb . ?,,,,,
Basically Pakistan has been destroyed by its corrupt and non-visionary establishment, security agencies and security establishment and politicians. While; the world peace and prosperity has been hijacked and destroyed by the psychopathic US and Allied using fake propaganda wars and power politics is the dirtiest game in their hands. Today the world is made by them more frustrated than ever in the entire history.
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.
Welcome to kpk ....PTI Pakistani Taliban ittefaq
I agree with csmann. If the security establishment and political leadership had shown a sense of urgency and grasp of the opportunity as soon as intelligence reports were received, they could have confronted and eliminated a large number of Taliban terrorists. Laying responsibility for this massive failure on the police force is unfair. Everyone knows that our police is not even equipped to carry out their day to day affairs; what to talk of confronting highly motivated and equipped terrorists. Either the provinces have to raise elite commando units trained by the army SSG, otherwise the army will have to directly take on these evil forces which are threatening to take over the state of Pakistan.
It was all plotted, and it can not done without the involvement or help of agencies.
@Fayez: Nor correct. Army has all of it. TTP activity was all planned by stake holders. So let us not get in to details as print media has no the courage to publish the facts.
as per my knowledge, even Pak Army don't have Night Vision Googles. I belong to tribal area and I have never seen any Pak Army soldier wearing it. You can approach them at night and they only see you when you are 10 meters away from them.
This is one of big reason Army and Other Para Military forces are attacked at night
"Meanwhile, the commander said all the freed TTP men were in safe locations and would resume their routine responsibilities." Of course they are gloating at their complete and total victory. They did not lose any man and they had so much time that they beheaded few Shia they had already identified! Now they "would resume their routine responsibilities". What a shame that we cannot protect our jails and bases.
Table story
Shame on our security forces e.g police.... Even taliban are equipped much better than u pplz.. U can't even secure ur prisons how would u pplz secure the innocent & free citizens
If it were not for the complicity and inefficiency of the law enforcement set-up, 400 Taliban could have been eliminated(150+250) easily. Now Pakistani citizens have to brace for some dark times ahead, and the law enforcement that ultimately has to apprehend and eliminate them has to be ready for many times more the sacrifice and damage than if they had acted in time.