384 inmates flee after Taliban attack Pakistan jail

Pakistani jail after Taliban attack

Totality 384 prisoners, with some "dangerous" militants, escaped from a prison in north-west Pakistan on Sunday after being attacked by more than 100 Taliban fighters carrying weapons with rockets and automatic weapons.

The prisoners, including 20 militants dangerous, escaped from the central prison in the town of Bannu, after Taliban fighters fired rockets and grenades launched at its main gate at 1.30 am, local time, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, the Minister ' Information from the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Among the dangerous militants who got away were some foreign fighters and Adnan Rashid, who was on death row for involvement in an assassination attempt against former President Pervez Musharraf.
The former military dictator had survived two deadly terrorist attacks in December 2003.
A police officer said that 10 prisoners were taken and an operation was underway to arrest the others.
Prison officials said a total of 944 prisoners were in jail when he was attacked.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan has telephoned reporters in the north-west of Pakistan and said the militants had carried out the attack.
He said the attackers had fled and the prisoners on their way to different destinations.
The assailants arrived at the prison cars and pickup trucks. They fired indiscriminately and hurled grenades to force their way into prison.
The attack lasted nearly two hours, during which the militants and the police a heavy firefight.
Attackers have focused on six barracks in prison and police officer Sahib Jan said that the militants broke the locks on the cells of prisoners on death row.
Reports reaching here said dozens of prisoners and policemen were injured in the fire.
The militants escaped taking advantage of the dark.
Police and paramilitary troops surrounded the prison and additional sealed off the area before launching a search operation.
Officials said they believed that the militants had come from the neighboring tribal region of North Waziristan, and fled to the same area with the prisoners escaped.
The information minister Hussain said authorities will investigate why the police inside the prison were able to repel the attack, and because there was a delay in other security forces that reach the prison after the attack began .
He said the militants had closed all roads leading to the prison after having launched the attack.
Reports said a large number of militants had recently been transferred to prison in Kohat Bannu and Lakki Marwat from nearby prisons, which were transformed into centers for rehabilitation of former rebels.