65 escapees held a day after jailbreak

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Sixty-five of the 488 prisoners, who escaped the central prison of southern Kandahar province through a tunnel, were re-arrested as a result of a search operation, officials claimed on Tuesday.

In a daring escape, hundreds of prisoners — many of them Taliban militants — fled the heavily-fortified jail in Kandahar City through a 360-metre-long tunnel dug by the fighters two days ago.

The Taliban claimed that 541 prisoners escaped the 12,000-inmate jail, while local officials put the number at 488. The passage linked a nearby house in the Sarpuza area to a cell of political prisoners.

Of those freed, 106 were insurgent commanders, a Taliban spokesman said. Only three inmates had prior knowledge of the plan. “The mujahideen who participated in this operation hailed it as a huge success. The authorities had no idea of that we were conducting this operation,” Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said.

Following the giant security breach, Afghan and international forces mounted a hunt that led to the capture of 65 escapees, the governor’s spokesman, Zalmay Ayubi told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The detainees were handed over to the counterterrorism police department for interrogation, he added. The search was willingly supported by locals, according Ayubi.

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