The brazen attack on D I Khan central jail by militants that led to escape of 248 inmates including 243 members of the banned outfits, exposed poor security measures and government negligence to strengthen jail security in spite of a similar attack on Bannu jail last year.
According to police sources around 250 armed militants attacked the central jail located in a highly guarded area of the city at around 11:20 pm. The militants believed to have come from adjacent areas including Tank and South Waziristan in vans and motor bikes. They first attacked a police check post killing four policemen and then stormed the jail armed with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.
This is the second attack of its nature in the last 15 months following Bannu Central Jail attack in April 2012 when terrorists succeeded in freeing 384 prisoners, including Adnan Rashid sentenced to death for attempt to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf.
Sources said that out of the 243 jailed for involvement in various terrorist activities, 39 were most wanted terrorists. The terrorists also took five women inmates including a lady police constable along with them, said a police official who requested not to be named.
AIG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Masood Afridi while talking to Business Recorder said that a fact finding inquiry committee has been constituted to probe why the terrorists successfully conducted the attack and took away dozens of inmates. He said that police had launched a massive search operation in D.I. Khan and other adjacent areas to arrest the escaped prisoners. To a question, he said that around 243 prisoners escaped but the exact figure will be shared with the media after completion of the probe.
When asked how many high profile militants escaped he said there were a number of terrorists in the jail but expressed his inability to come up with the exact number of high profile terrorists who managed to escape. The report prepared by the advisor to chief minister on prisons and Inspector General (IG) prisons states that police backup arrived over four hours late and intelligence agencies had warned of such attack three days ago.
However, Masood Afridi said that there were no specific threats regarding the attack. According to reports, the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed that around 200 Taliban detainees were freed. A police official while sharing the inside story of the jail attack with Business Recorder said that the terrorists after entering the jail premises broke into the barracks housing the inmates of the banned terror groups. He further revealed that through mega phone the terrorists announced the names of detained militants who identified themselves before being freed.
The official said that the militants also killed five inmates belonging to Shia sect whose dead bodies were shifted to District headquarter Hospital. They were identified as Sajid Hussain (Multan), Juma Khan (Multan), Akhtar Abbas (D I Khan), Muhmmad Aslm (D I Khan) and Rajb Ali (Parachanar). He further said that Akhtar Abbas has been beheaded. There were also unconfirmed reports that the militants also took away some Shia prisoners along with them.
The official further said that two days earlier there was a brawl between a police official and a prisoner belonging to a banned outfit for possessing a cell phone, which indicates that the inmates were in touch with militants outside through mobile phones.
According to sources there were a total of 483 prisoners at the jail and 248 escaped after the attack while 14 were re-arrested during search operation by security forces. Nine people including six policemen were killed and 14 others injured in the attack.
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