AFGHAN AND Nato forces have launched a huge operation to try to recapture 475 prisoners, nearly all of them Taliban insurgents, who staged an extraordinary mass prison breakout using a tunnel.
Officials said the inmates had escaped through the tunnel dug from a house to the wing of the prison where political prisoners are detained in Kandahar.
In an e-mail, Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the tunnel was 320m (1,050ft) long and had taken five months, “bypassing enemy check-posts and Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison”. He said just three insurgents inside the prison had known about the plot. They helped ferry the prisoners out of the jail in an operation lasting 4½ hours.
Mr Mujahid said that by 3.30am yesterday, the entire political wing of the jail was emptied of inmates. These had been ferried off to “secure destinations” by a fleet of cars the Taliban had organised.
The message, written in near-perfect English, crowed over the failures of the security forces: “The most astonishing thing throughout the operation, as reported by mujahideen informants, was that all the enemy forces inside the prison, which includes foreign invaders, did not notice the results of the operation even four hours later and hence has not released any statements. Mujahideen had also placed a martyrdom-seeking group near the prison, whose need did not arise due to the inaction shown by the enemy.”
Amir Muhammad Jamshad, head of Kandahar’s prisons, said the tunnel was a major undertaking by the insurgents, who were unable to use heavy machinery because it could attract attention.
A man whom Taliban spokesmen said was one of the inmates who helped organise the escape from the inside, said a group of inmates obtained copies of the cell keys ahead of time.
“There were four or five of us who knew that our friends were digging a tunnel from the outside,” said Mohammad Abdullah, who said he had been in Sarposa prison for two years. “When the time came at night, we managed to open the doors for friends who were in other rooms.”
He said they woke the inmates up four or five at a time to get them out quietly. Mr Abdullah spoke by phone on a number supplied by a Taliban spokesman.
There are guard towers at each corner of the prison compound, which is illuminated at night and protected by concrete barriers topped with razor wire. The entrance can only be reached by passing checkpoints and gates.
Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar, said security forces at the prison had “failed in their duty”, but strenuous efforts were already under way to recapture the prisoners. “Some of the escaped prisoners have been recaptured by the security forces during searching operations, and huge operations have launched inside and on outskirts of Kandahar city for the rest of them,” he said.
He also appealed to Kandahar residents to phone in tip-offs about escaped prisoners to a special hotline set up by authorities.
Despite his insistence that recapturing so many prisoners would be made easier by biometric records held, the breakout is a blow to international and Afghan government efforts.
One member of Kandahar’s provincial council, Hajji Hematullah, said although some prisoners might still be in the city, many others would be heading for the Pakistani border.
The freeing of so many hardened insurgents comes just before the summer “fighting season”, and could potentially reverse some of the gains Nato made in operations aimed at killing and capturing as many insurgents as possible.
In June 2008, the Taliban stormed the prison, using a suicide bomber to break a hole in a wall. That operation allowed 870 inmates, including 390 insurgents, to escape. – (Guardian service)