
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Nearly 400 prisoners escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan early on Sunday after it was attacked by Islamist militants armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades, a senior police official said. Some of those who fled the jail in the town of Bannu, near unruly ethnic Pahstun tribal areas close to the Afghan border, were militants, an intelligence official said. Pakistan's al-Qaida-linked Taliban movement, which has close links to al-Qaida, said its fighters mounted the assault, which triggered clashes. Several people were wounded. "We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way," a Taliban spokesman said. The claim could not be immediately verified. If the al-Qaida-linked Taliban freed the prisoners, it could deal a psychological blow to Pakistani security forces following government assertions that security crackdowns have weakened the group. While the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan have staged several jailbreaks, such operations are rare in Pakistan, one of the most unstable countries in the world. Pakistan is seen as critical to US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. Yet the South Asian nation faces its own major security challenges. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, is seen as the biggest threat, staging suicide bombings and shootings in a drive to impose its harsh version of Islam in the nuclear-armed country <b>...</b>
384
prisoners
escape
after
Taliban
raid
on
Pakistan
prison
Tehrik-e-Taliban
Movement
of
attack
in
Red
Mosque
Pakistani
Islamist
militants
Barack
Obama
Bannu
Central
Jail
al-Qaida
Afghan
400
break
pak