Karachi jailbreak suspects admit to planning suicide attack in Muharram

Security forces find maps of Karachi jail, computers, suicide jackets, important documents in their possession

KARACHI: Ten arrested suspects – allegedly responsible for digging a tunnel into Karachi Central Jail – admitted to planning a suicide attack on the prison in Muharram, Express News reported on Friday.

On October 18, paramilitary Rangers had claimed to have thwarted a terrorists’ bid to tunnel into the main prison of the metropolitan city and stage a jailbreak that could have freed up to 100 dangerous militants from outlawed groups.

Rangers today arrested 10 suspects during raids in different parts of the city. The suspects admitted they had planned to enter Karachi jail, detonate explosives and free militants on Muharram 8.

Security forces claim to have found maps of Karachi jail, computers, suicide jackets, important documents and guns in the possession of the suspects.



The attempt to break into the jail was reminiscent of the daring breakout in April 2011 when the Afghan Taliban had tunneled at least 480 inmates out of the main prison in Kandahar province of Afghanistan, whisking them through a 1,000-foot-long underground passage they had dug over months.

On this side of the border, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had freed nearly 600 inmates – among them some high-profile Taliban fighters – in near-identical raids on Bannu and DI Khan prisons in 2012 and 2013, respectively.