5 dead, several escape in Sar-i-Pul jailbreak

SAR-I-PUL CITY (PAN): Five people were killed and 31 others wounded during a daring jailbreak that led to the escape of dozens of prisoners in northern Sar-i-Pul province, officials said on Friday.

The jailbreak followed a powerful bomb blast inside the building and a well-coordinated attack from three directions on the central prison late on Thursday night, the deputy governor said.

Akhtar Mohammad Khairzada told Pajhwok Afghan News that three inmates, a policeman and a militant were killed and 31 others, including 28 prisoners, wounded in the ensuing clash.

Almost simultaneouly with the explosion, another detention facility in the area also came under insurgent attack, the deputy governor said. Some inmates claimed seeing armed individuals firing at prison guards.

A security official, who did not want to be named, revealed that the fighters were in close coordination with their jailed associates. Immediately after the blast, he said, the prisoners started firing at security personnel.

The source put the number of fleeing prisoners at 170, but provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Yaqub Zabuli confirmed the escape of only 20 inmates. 

Zabuli said the bomb was assembled inside the jail, and the explosion destroyed the boundry wall, burying three inmates and wounding as many. He added the situation was currently under control.

Eighteen injured people, some of them in serious condition, were evacuated to the main hospital in the provincial capital, said Public Health Director Dr. Haroon.

In April 2011, at least 480 Taliban fled as a result of a major security breach at the central prison in southern Kandahar province.

A team of 18 insurgents spent five months burrowing hundreds of metres underground through the soil into Sarpoza prison, taking the tunnel right into the prison’s political section.

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