Twenty detainees, including terrorism suspects, attempted a jailbreak in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, officials told AFP, adding that one person was “killed in a gunfight” during the escape.
“The prisoners had pistols and used them to take the sentry hostage,” said Badal Munir, a local interior ministry official.
“it is…”
Twenty detainees, including terrorism suspects, attempted a jailbreak in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, officials told AFP, adding that one person was “killed in a gunfight” during the escape.
“The prisoners had pistols and used them to take the sentry hostage,” said Badal Munir, a local interior ministry official.
“It is not clear whether they confiscated (the weapons) from prison officials or brought them from outside,” Munir added.
The incident occurred in Poonch District Jail in Rawalakot city, about 110 km south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
“A total of 20 people have escaped from the prison. One was killed in the gunfight while the remaining 19 are on the run,” Kashmir Prisons Inspector General Waheed Ali Gilani told AFP.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
Police had sealed off the entrances and exits to Rawalakot and search operations were underway to locate the fugitives, local police official Riaz Mughal told AFP.
Pakistan’s prisons are notorious for overcrowding, poor conditions, corruption and human rights violations, and a slow judicial process leads to long prisoner detentions.
Militant groups have staged several major prison breaks in Pakistan in the past, including one in 2012 when 400 prisoners escaped from the northwestern town of Bannu.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
Square/Small
