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Afghanistan

Afghan forces hunt fugitives after Taliban jailbreak

2008-06-15

Follow-up. A huge manhunt was under way today for at least 870 fugitives, including 390 Taliban militants, who were sprung from Kandahar's main prison in an audacious assault last night. An investigation has been launched to find out whether any government officials were involved in the commando-style attack by several dozen Taliban fighters. Oh, you think ... None of the prisoners had yet been tracked down, the deputy justice minister, Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, told Reuters. "It was a very unprecedented attack and, together with foreign forces, an operation has been launched to track down and arrest the prisoners," he said. The police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban prisoners were among the 870 inmates who fled the prison during the attack late Friday. I wouldn't be too eager to take those 390 prisoner again ... A Nato spokesman put the number of fugitives at around 1,100. "We admit it," Brigadier General Carlos Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban." Prison staff said the assault began when a tanker full of explosives was detonated at the Sarposa compound's main entrance, wrecking the gate and a police post and killing the officers inside. A short time later, a suicide bomber travelling on foot blasted a hole in the back of the prison. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked the prison, and claimed militants had been planning the assault for two months. "Today, we succeeded," he said, adding that the escaped prisoners were "going to their homes". Funny how we never quite figure out which phone booth Qari is using ... Witnesses said rockets were fired at the prison during the 30-minute battle. A local politician said 15 policemen were killed in the storming of the prison and subsequent clashes. Today, security forces were checking vehicles and motorcyclists on key roads in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city. Some houses were searched where authorities suspected some escapees had hidden, residents said. Nato-led troops were supporting the Afghan security forces in cordoning off the area in the hunt for the prison inmates, said an alliance spokesman in Kabul. Dozens of police and army soldiers were deployed outside the badly damaged prison. A pile of rubble lay where two towers of the jail had collapsed. Wali Karzai, the president of Kandahar's provincial council and the brother of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said the prison held about 350 suspected Taliban fighters. "There is no one left," he said.

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Afghanistan

Taliban prison riot over

2006-03-02

Police declared a four-day revolt at Afghanistan's main jail over late on Wednesday after more than 1,350 inmates surrendered. The riot erupted at Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi jail late on Saturday, allegedly instigated by about 300 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners whom police said were trying to create chaos so that they could escape. "The violence is over," police rapid reaction force commander General Mahboob Amiri said as the last of the prisoners were made to leave the riot-smashed cell block for more secure facilities. "The prison is under full control of police," he said. Hundreds of extra police and soldiers deployed at the height of the standoff had left the complex on the outskirts of Kabul but 200 would remain, Amiri said. He said that a fifth body had been found in the evacuated block - that of a man from the criminal wing who was killed on Tuesday with what police said was a club fashioned from a metal bar, perhaps from a bed frame. Clashes broke out among the prisoners late on Tuesday after more than 1,000 inmates convicted of non-terrorist offenses had declared their intention to call off their resistance early the following day. The political prisoners apparently opposed their surrender. It had been expected that they would resist being taken out from the block but they did not, deputy justice minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said. "There was no use of force. The criminal wing surrendered and later the political wing also started to come out and surrender one by one," he said. Police said that two of the four inmates killed in the first wave of violence after the riot erupted on Saturday were Al Qaeda members - one from Pakistan and the other from Tajikistan. Prisoners armed with makeshift weapons attacked guards, had set alight furniture and bedding and smashed windows and doors. Some chanted slogans against President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush, witnesses said. Guards opened fire to try to control the situation and the complex was surrounded by about 1,000 troops and police who occasionally fired into the building, witnesses said. Five inmates were killed and around 30 wounded overall in four days of mayhem at the prison. Among the inmates removed from the block on Wednesday was US citizen Edward Caraballo, one of three Americans convicted in September 2004 of torturing suspects in a so-called private war on terror. Hashimzai said that authorities confiscated Caraballo's telephone and laptop because he had used them to "disseminate false information" about the riot. Caraballo said that he was being held hostage but this was rejected by authorities. Besides the criminal and 300 political prisoners, the block also held about 60 women, some with children, who were moved out late on Tuesday. Prison guards said that some of the women, who included a Nepali convicted of drug smuggling, had told them that they were raped. Several officials have dismissed the rape allegations but Amiri said that they would be investigated. Most Al Qaeda suspects caught in Afghanistan after the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001 have been transferred to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or the US jail at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. Some low-ranking Al Qaeda and rank-and-file Taliban are still housed in Pul-e-Charkhi, officials say. Prisoner representatives handed a list of demands to negotiators on Monday. The negotiators said that some would be addressed, such as complaints over living conditions. Others, including a review of all cases, were still being considered.

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Afghanistan

Fresh violence hits Afghan jail

2006-03-01

Violence has flared again at Afghanistan's main jail, ending a brief period of calm after two days of rioting which killed four inmates. Dead inmates? Oh, my heart bleeds!... No. Wait. Brussels sprouts again. Never mind. Police have blamed the deaths on al-Qaida and Taliban inmates held at the grim 1970s-era Pul-e-Charkhi jail on the outskirts of Kabul. Have you considered artillery? On Tuesday gunfire was again heard from inside the prison as officials said some of the 1300 prisoners were once more smashing windows and beds as they had done when the first revolt erupted last Saturday. Authorities had been hopeful that earlier talks would end the standoff and had been preparing to move the prisoners to new facilities after their own were damaged in the rioting. Why move them after they've fouled their nests? Why not leave them there to enjoy it? "It seems that they don't respect what they had agreed during negotiations," Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, Deputy Justice Minister, told AFP. "They've started to break windows and beds and even walls." They don't respect their agreements? Wow. That's never happened before, has it? He said it appeared some inmates were receiving orders from outside the jail through their mobile phones. Authorities were trying their best to calm the situation, he said as extra police arrived and a spy drone flew overhead. A prisoner who asked not to be named told AFP by mobile phone that police opened fire late on Tuesday after inmates refused to move to another building. Sounds good. Lots of casualties, I hope? The man, who said he was being held on criminal charges, said Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners started the revolt and other inmates joined them. "We're together now and resisting together," the prisoner said. "Unless our demands are met we will not surrender to police." If Dostum was in charge he'd be giving them the old "surrender or die" choice. If he gave them a choice... He added: "The police tried to enter the block but were forced out. We've blocked the gates and windows with beds, chairs and desks."

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Afghanistan

Afghan prison riot enters 4th day

2006-02-28

A siege at the Afghan capital’s main jail entered a fourth day on Tuesday but the government expressed hope for a peaceful resolution to a bloody revolt by hundreds of inmates. Four prisoners have been killed and 38 wounded since more than 1,000 prisoners led by Taleban commanders and a kidnap gang leader took over parts of the Pul-i-Charkhi prison on Saturday night, prisoners told a human rights lawyer. Troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers have surrounded the jail on Kabul’s eastern outskirts, but numbers appeared to have declined from hundreds to dozens on Tuesday. Authorities sent food to the prisoners on Monday as a sign of good faith after negotiations led by Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a former president who heads a state-appointed peace commission trying to encourage Taleban insurgents to lay down their arms. On Tuesday, trucks were seen entering the prison carrying mattresses and blankets to replace bedding prisoners set fire to during the siege. Authorities have promised to restore electricity and water supplies once prisoners move from a block they have occupied, Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai told Reuters. “There has been breakthrough in the talks,” he said. “The prisoners have promised Mr. Mojadidi to evacuate the wing they had occupied. So we have optimism that this will happen today and I think we are nearing a peaceful end.” During the siege, prisoners occupied a block housing about 70 women inmates and their children, raising concerns for their safety. Officials said on Monday no hostages were being held and male and female prisoners were back in their respective blocks. Officials said inmates did not appear to have guns but did have makeshift weapons made from broken furniture. Nader Nadery of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which has been involved in talks with the prisoners, said Taleban suspects, about 200 of whom were being held without trial, were demanding to be tried or freed. Prisoners have also demanded an end to a new rule requiring them to wear uniforms and the removal of cell bars. Corruption and inefficiency in Afghanistan’s war-shattered legal system means suspects are often held without trial for years, especially if they lack resources or influential patrons as is the case for many militant suspects. On Monday, Mojadidi said the prisoners had agreed to allow treatment of the wounded and preparations for the burial of any dead. Referring to the prisoners’ demands, he said “some of them were logical, some minor and some important”. Nadery said ringleaders included Timoor Shah, head of a gang that kidnapped an Italian aid worker last year and police named the Taleban commanders as Mullah Mujadid and Mullah Shahidzai. While the Italian aid worker was free unharmed, Timoor Shah faces a death sentence for murdering an Afghan businessman. Officials initially said Al Qaeda suspects were among the ringleaders, but later said the militants were mostly Taleban. The jail at Pul-i-Charkhi, where thousands of Afghans who opposed communist rule were killed and tortured in the 1980s, has been the scene of unrest before. Officials say the riot erupted after authorities issued uniforms to prisoners to prevent a repeat of an escape last month by seven Taleban who mingled with visitors. In December 2004, four policemen and four inmates died in a siege at the jail when militants attempted a breakout.

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Afghanistan

30 injured in al-Qaeda prison riot

2006-02-26

Taliban and al Qaeda militants took control of a wing of the Afghan capital‘s main high security prison and at least 30 prisoners were wounded in attempts to quell the riot, officials said on Sunday. The unrest erupted on Saturday night after prisoners led by Taliban and al Qaeda militants took two female guards captive during a row over attempts to implement a new rule requiring inmates to wear pink fluffy bunny-rabbit slippers prison uniforms, government officials said. "As far as we know, some 1,500 prisoners are involved in this incident," a security official told Reuters on condition he was not identified. "It went out of control and a clash broke out between the prisoners, including many Taliban, and the police, in which 30 people have been wounded," he said. Bursts of gunfire were heard from within the sprawling prison compound on the eastern outskirts of Kabul on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Heavily armed police and troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers took positions outside the perimeter and security forces prevented journalists from approaching. Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, who was tasked with quelling the riot, said four prisoners were wounded while trying to escape from the prison. "I have also heard that 20 more prisoners have been wounded, but the people behind this unrest are not ready to hand them over to us for treatment," he told reporters outside the prison. He said the situation was under control, but the riot was not over. "Taliban and al Qaeda members from different countries are behind this unrest," he told Reuters. "They still control the wing from where they had started the riot." Hashimzai said the prison housed more than 2,000 prisoners, about 350 of whom were Taliban or al Qaeda militants. General Mahboub Amiri, chief of Kabul‘s RAB Rapid Reaction Police Force, said Taliban members triggered the riot in an escape bid. Hashimzai said the riot erupted after prison authorities began issuing blue uniforms to prisoners on Saturday. The uniforms were intended to prevent a repeat of an escape by seven Taliban suspects from the prison last month who got out by mingling with visitors. Officials said they suspected the escapees were assisted by prison guards. Pul-i-Charkhi is a large Soviet-style prison complex built in the 1970s. Thousands of Afghans who opposed communist rule were killed and tortured there in the 1980s. Nowadays it is used to house common criminals as well as al Qaeda or Taliban-linked militants.

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