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Top officials removed over Bannu jailbreak
BANNU: The Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Amir Haider Khan Hoti has removed Commissioner Bannu, Inspector General of Prisons, Deputy Superintendent Jail Bannu and DIG Police Range from their posts over Bannu jailbreak incident, Geo News reported.The CM has also constituted an enquiry committee comprising Dr Ehsanul Haq, Secretary Education Mohammad Mushtaq Jadoon and Special Secretary (Home) Syed Alamgir Shah.
KPK Home Secretary told Geo News that the CM removed Commissioner Bannu Abdullah Khan Mehsud, IG Prisons Arshad Majeed Mohmand, DIG Police Range Bannu Mohammad Iftikhar Khan, and Deputy Superintendent Jail Bannu Mohammad Zahid from their posts and made them OSDs.
The interior ministry of KPK has sent the preliminary investigation report of Bannu jailbreak incident to the federal interior ministry.
The report has accused the police and intelligence agencies for the incident and termed it a 'failure' of the intelligence agencies.
Taliban militants stormed the Central Prison, Bannu, with rockets and automatic weapons to enable over 384 prisoners to escape from different barracks early Sunday morning.
According to the report, at least 150 militants attacked the jail who came in 25 vehicles and conducted operation till two hours. Despite the presence of three police stations in nearby vicinity, police force could not reach the Central Prison on time. The report termed the incident a failure of intelligence agencies and demanded extensive investigation.
The escaped prisoners included 269 convicted, 89 under trial prisoners (UTP) while 21 were awarded death sentence.
KPK Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told that 20 high profile prisoners, including Adnan Rasheed who was involved in an attack on former President Gen Pervez Musharraf, were among the 384 prisoners who fled the Bannu prison after the attack.
The minister said an inquiry would be conducted into the jailbreak and the late arrival of the police force to help the jail authorities in countering the attack. He termed it a well-coordinated attack and said the attackers had first secured all the roads in the area.
Sources said militants attacked the main gate of the prison with a rocket launcher and then broke into the jail while continuing firing and hurling hand-grenades to break the gates of the barracks.
Sources and eyewitnesses said that security personnel of the prison, the local police and other security forces deployed in the area didn't offer stiff resistance to counter the terrorist attack during over one-and-a-half hours of action. The attackers also set on fire the jail record during this period.
Jail authorities complained that the forces arrived at the prison in the morning when the attackers had managed to escape towards the adjacent tribal areas.
Raids were conducted in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Karak and other districts for the arrest of the escaped prisoners.
Courtesy www.geo.tv