Rioting prisoners at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi Jail near Kabul Sunday expressed their willingness for talks with a deputy of President Hamid Karzai.A high-ranking Justice Ministry official, who put the death toll at eight, informed Pajhwok Afghan News the jail inmates were ready for negotiations with the government on their demands. "We tried to meet a number of prisoners but they refused to talk to us. The detainees want to negotiate directly with the president's deputy," revealed the source, who requested not to be named.
During the unrest that erupted last night, prisoners including al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters reportedly snatched weapons from security personnel. After a bloody clash with jail guards, the furious detainees went on the rampage, smashing doors and beddings and setting alight mattresses and blankets, sources said, adding normality was yet to be restored.
| Sounds like Attica with turbans. |
Earlier in the day, a senior police officer said terror convicts in the jail received arms before attacking the guards on duty. Nevertheless, he would not explain where the weapons came from and how they were taken inside the notorious prison built in 1970.
| "I know nothing! Tell them, Hogan!" |
The trouble started after prisoners refused to wear jail uniform, with different colours for political prisoners and ordinary detainees - already irked by the construction of iron structures in front of their cells.
| Didn't like the iron bars and the pink fluffy slippers, eh? |
Although police have ringed the jail to prevent escape attempts and no one is let in, sporadic bursts of fire could be heard outside. Chief of Prisons Gen. Abdul Salam Bakhshi, voicing concern at the disturbance, said security forces had not yet got into the 11th Block.
Representatives of human rights watchdogs, UN, ICRC, Ministries of Justice, Interior and Foreign Affairs have reached the scene. They were trying to calm down the highly-charged situation and pondered negotiations with the prisoners.
| "You furriner guys ponder this. In the meantime, Mahmoud, get the machine guns ready." |