Taliban jailbreak frees hundreds

30 July 2013 Last updated at 06:12 ET The militants used a loud hailer to call prisoners out by name, as Orla Guerin reports

Taliban militants have freed 243 prisoners in an assault on a prison in north-west Pakistan, officials say.

The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began with huge explosions at around midnight on Monday (15:00 GMT).

Gunmen then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns, police chief Sohail Khalid said. About 70 attackers were in police uniform.

The town is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, next to Pakistan’s restive mountainous tribal region.

The town’s prison houses hundreds of Taliban and militants from banned groups.

Twelve people – including six police officers – were killed in the gun battle that raged for three or four hours after militants launched their assault.

The town’s civil commissioner Mushtaq Jadoon said that 30 hardened militants jailed for their involvement in major attacks or suicide bombings were among those who escaped.

Continue reading the main story Those released include two local Taliban commanders, Abdul Hakim and Haji Ilyas, reports BBC Urdu’s Ahmed Wali.Continue reading the main story M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Islamabad

The Taliban assault comes on the day parliament is electing a new president. We will never know if the timing was deliberate, but it has hugely embarrassed the government, and once again highlighted the ability of the militants to strike at will.

Suggestions the authorities had advance warning of the attack, but did not act on it, only make matters worse.

No very high-profile Taliban members were being held at the Dera prison, but at least 30 militants freed in the assault are described by the authorities as “hardened” Taliban fighters. The attack rekindles memories of a 2012 jailbreak in the nearby city of Bannu in which about 400 prisoners escaped, including Adnan Rashid, a radicalised former member of the military who recently wrote an open letter to child activist Malala Yousafzai, explaining why she was attacked by the Taliban.

The Dera jail attack comes a month after the police said they had arrested a group of militants who were planning to launch a similar attack on Karachi Central Jail. This is indicative of an emerging Taliban strategy to break jails instead of negotiating the release of their prisoners by taking hostages, which they have done in the past.

Also released is a sectarian militant, Waleed Akbar, the principle suspect in last year’s attacks on Shia mourners in Dera Ismail Khan during the Shia mourning month of Moharram.

Attackers used loudhailers to call the names of particular inmates, Mr Jadoon said.

Fourteen fugitives were later re-arrested by police, he said. A curfew has now been imposed on Dera Ismail Khan as police hunt for the remaining escaped prisoners, but correspondents say this will be a difficult task as they flee into tribal areas.

Katherine Houreld, a correspondent for Reuters news agency, told the BBC it had been a “very sophisticated attack – they blew the electricity line, they breached the walls and they set ambushes for reinforcements”.

Mr Jadoon told a local TV station that 14 explosive devices planted in the jail had so far been defused.

Attack ‘threats’

A local resident told the agency that the initial blast was so loud that “it rattled every house in the neighbourhood”.

The attackers were chanting “God is great” and “Long live the Taliban”, officials said.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid has claimed responsibility for the attack. He said around 300 prisoners had been freed.

Continue reading the main story

Since Prime Minister Nazaz Sharif took office on 5 June, his government has faced a number of brazen attacks around the country:

27 July: At least 57 killed and scores injured as bombs hit market in Parachinar, a town with large Shia population near Afghan border 24 July: Attackers storm office of ISI intelligence agency in Sukkur, Sindh province, detonating bombs and injuring more than 30 people. Five killed, mostly attackers10 July: Chief security officer of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and aides killed in Karachi bomb attack 30 June: At least 56 people killed, dozens injured, in bomb attacks in Quetta and Peshawar - as Sharif pledges new action on terrorism23 June: Gunmen kill 10, including at least nine foreign tourists, after storming hotel at Nanga Parbat mountain base camp in northern Pakistan. Attack claimed by new branch of Pakistani Taliban15 June: Fourteen students killed in blast on bus at women’s university in city of Quetta; hours later gunmen attack Quetta hospital, killing 10 – attacks both claimed by extremist Sunni militant group, Laskar-e-JhangviThe authorities are reported to have received intelligence about an impending attack two weeks ago, but prison officials said they did not expect it to come so soon.

The building is about a century old and officials say it was not constructed to house high-security prisoners.

Hundreds of inmates were freed in an assault on a prison in Bannu in northern Pakistan in April last year.

Correspondents say the authorities will face questions about how militants were able to stage a virtually identical attack in Dera Ismail Khan.

The attack appears to be part of a Taliban strategy to break jails instead of negotiating prisoner releases with government, the BBC’s Ilyas Khan reports from Islamabad.

Last month, police claimed they arrested some Taliban operatives who were planning to attack a jail in the southern port city of Karachi, our correspondent adds.

Monday night’s violence came hours before Pakistani politicians were to choose the country’s new president.

The replacement for Asif Ali Zardari is being elected by the members of both houses of parliament and the four provincial assemblies.

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Taliban jailbreak frees hundreds