Afghanistan's great escape: 480 Taliban prisoners broke out of jail in 2011
Since we are talking about prison attacks, it will be appropriate to recall Afghanistan's great prisoners escape in April 2011 when Taliban militants tunneled more than 480 inmates out from the Saraposa prison in the city of Kandahar, whisking them through a 1,000-foot-long underground passage they had dug over month.
Prison officials only discovered the breach about 4 a.m., about a half hour after the Taliban said they had gotten all the prisoners out.
The 1,200-inmate Sarposa prison has been part of a plan to bolster the government's presence in Kandahar. The facility underwent security upgrades and tightened procedures after a brazen 2008 Taliban attack freed 900 prisoners. In that assault, dozens of militants on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked the prison. One suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden tanker truck at the prison gate while a second bomber blew open an escape route through a back wall.
A man who claimed he helped organize those inside the prison told The Associated Press in a phone call that he and his accomplices obtained copies of the keys for the cells ahead of time from "friends." He did not say who those friends were, but his comments suggested possible collusion by prison guards.
The Guardian newspaper published graphic details of the Taliban operation:
"According to people involved in the break-out, the Taliban's great escape began with a team of 18 insurgents on the outside spending five months burrowing hundreds of metres underground through the brown soil west of Kandahar city and into Sarpoza prison, taking their tunnel right into the prison's political section where hundreds of Taliban were held.
"As the great escape was a break-in rather than a break-out, there was no need to surreptitiously get rid of the earth inside the camp; according to one local media report, the Kandahar plotters simply sold lorry-loads of the earth in the city's bazaar from a tunnel stretching a reported 320 metres.
"According to one of the escapees, the tunnel was of sufficient diameter and high enough for the prisoners to stand upright for most of their walk to freedom. Sections were lit by electric light and ventilated with fans, he said.
"When the escapee prisoners got to a construction-company compound at the end of the tunnel, they were met by their commanders and taken off in cars to safe locations."
The Pakistani Taliban have perhaps taken cue from the Afghan Taliban to secure release of their comrades.
It may also be pointed out that the Taliban attacks on prisons came in the wake of US-financed military operations in Pakistan's tribal territories along the border with Afghanistan.
The military operations, which have killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, continued behind a smoke screen. The mercenary army has taken thousands of 'militants' into custody since the operation was launched in 2004 at the behest of Washington.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose Muslim League-Nawaz Party captured absolute majority seats in the parliament in May 11's tainted general elections, has shown inclination to hold peace talks with the TTP, but Washington is against such talks.
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