Dera Ismail Khan: Around 150 Taliban militants disguised as policemen attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan, freeing more than 300 prisoners, including 25 “Hardcore terrorists,” officials said. The prison was housing at least 5000 prisoners, 250 of them hardcore militants.
The militants killed six policemen, six Shiite Muslim prisoners and two civilians during Monday late night's attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, said the town's commissioner, Mushtaq Jadoon. One of the Shiites was beheaded.
The militants armed with guns, grenades and bombs arrived at the prison by car and motorcycle around 11:30 p.m. to begin the attack, which lasted for about 4 1/2 hours until most of the fighters escaped, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The militants blew up two electricity transformers which created complete darkness before the attack, the officials said. The militants also destroyed all the police vehicles with hand grenades, the officials said.
The attack began with a huge explosion that one resident, Sharafat Khan, said was so loud “it rattled every house in the neighborhood.” The militants then detonated dozens of smaller bombs at different points along the prison walls, causing them to collapse, Jadoon said. They also fired rocket-propelled grenades and lobbed hand grenades, he said. Fifteen policemen were wounded in the attack, he said. Security forces engaged the attackers, who were chanting “God is great” and “Long live the Taliban,” intelligence officials said. At least eight attackers disguised in police uniforms entered the prison on motorcycles adorned with Taliban flags and used megaphones to call out the names of specific prisoners for whom they were looking. The militants broke open the cells and freed over 300 prisoners, including 25 “dangerous terrorists,” the officials said.
While accepting responsibility for the attack, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed that their attackers had freed around 300 inmates. "We had sent around 150 fighters including a squad of suicide bombers. The aim was to free the inmates and it was a successful action as Taliban managed to free at least 300 prisoners," said Shahidullah Shahid, the newly appointed spokesperson of TTP.
The law enforcement agencies with the help of army had cordoned off the prison and surrounding area before launching an operation. Authorities captured nine prisoners who escaped and were searching for the others, as well as the militants, Jadoon said. A curfew has been imposed in Dera Ismail Khan and the nearby town of Tank while the search goes on, said Amir Khattak, Dera Ismail Khan's deputy commissioner. The town is near Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in the country. Officials received a letter threatening an attack on the prison, but they didn't expect it so soon, said Khalid Abbas, head of the prison department in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
In April 2012, more than hundred heavily armed militants, affiliated with Pakistani Taliban broke a prison in Bannu town next to North Waziristan tribal region, freeing nearly 400 prisoners. One of the militants freed in that attack was Adnan Rasheed, an ex-official of Pakistan air force, who was involved in attack on president Pervez Musharraf in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Rasheed recently drew media attention by writing a long letter to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year in an attempt to kill her. In April 2012, more than hundred heavily armed militants, affiliated with Pakistani Taliban broke a prison in Bannu town next to North Waziristan tribal region, freeing nearly 400 prisoners. One of the militants freed in that attack was Adnan Rasheed, an ex-official of Pakistan air force, who was involved in attack on president Pervez Musharraf in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Rasheed recently drew media attention by writing a long letter to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year in an attempt to kill her.
