Pakistan jailbreak: isolated incident or part of global terrorism?

On the night of July 29, Taliban militants assaulted Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan jail, freeing 248 prisoners.

On the night of July 29, Taliban militants assaulted Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan jail, freeing 248 prisoners. The Taliban says 150 militants participated in this action and added that they know where the militants were staying.

This jailbreak cannot be looked as a separate incident of terrorism. Rather it is a part of global terrorism, as this event has the same strategy, footwork, and modus operandi (method of operation) of what we have seen at the Abu Ghraib prison break and Benghazi jail break this week.

Experts who understand terrorism in the region are of the view that weak legislation; constant support of the political system to religious factors; indifferent behavior of law-enforcing agencies against religious groups; and, of course, the blurred situation of Pakistan against the war or terror are factors that will keep helping terrorists in Pakistan.

Now freed terrorists have the option to leave for Syria to fight along with anti-Syrian government forces, or move to Afghanistan to fight against the Karzai government, or stay in Pakistan and spread terror everywhere they wish to.

The D.I. Khan jailbreak had the same strategy and planning that was already seen when terrorists attacked the Elite Force Training School, Manawan Police Training Center, and FIA building in Lahore on Friday, October 16, 2009. Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for these attacks, and nine terrorists were killed while thirteen security personnel and five civilians were killed in a retaliatory action by the law enforcement agencies. One suspect, Hazrat Ali, was arrested on the spot, and his arrest was live on almost every news channel. He was tried, given bail, and disappeared.

On April 15, 2012, Bannu jailbreak escapees gave a narration of the event and said that at least 400-500 heavily-armed attackers had stormed the jail to set the prisoners free. There were at least fifty fast-moving, four-wheel-drive (SUV) vehicles packed with the long-haired insurgents who had state-of-the-art weaponry. Bearded bandits barged into the jail shooting/bombing and told inmates to flee amid the fire and thunder of the guns, and then panicked.

On Juyl 23, 2013, as many as 500 prisoners, most of them senior al-Qaeda members awaiting execution, reportedly escaped from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison last night in “military-style assault to free them.”

Suicide bombers drove cars laden with bombs to the gates of the prison and blasted them open as they did in the attack of the ISI headquarters in Lahore and Sukhar and at the FIA building in Lahore. At all important and major attacks, this strategy is being used in Pakistan – a strategy that has a roots to Middle East training of Al-Qaeda.

In Abu Gharib, foot soldiers then attacked guards, and reinforcements with explosives and guns dressed as men in suicide vests stormed the prison to free inmates from their cells. Ten police officers and four militants were killed in the battle, which dragged on into early Monday morning. When the dust cleared, hundreds of prisoners were gone.

On July 27, 2013, about 1,200 inmates escaped from a jail in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi. A security official told the AP news agency that most of the escapees were facing serious charges.

Benghazi is one of the most unstable parts of post-revolution Libya. Last year the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed there.

On July 29 2013, Taliban militants freed 248 prisoners in an assault on a prison in northwest Pakistan, officials say. Militants armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and bombs blasted down the walls of the jail in the town of Dera Ismail Khan and streamed inside, reports said.

A gun battle lasting several hours went on into the early hours of Tuesday. At least 13 died, including six police. The attack was similar to an assault on a prison in nearby Bannu in April last year, in which almost 400 prisoners were freed.

www.dnd.com.pk

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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