The number of al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists broken out of jail in recent weeks: About 750.
(Reuters) – In an operation carried out with military-like precision, Taliban fighters disguised as police and armed with bombs broke 250 prisoners out of a Pakistan jail on Tuesday with the help of what appeared to be insider informants.
The attack in the city of Dera Ismail Khan showed the ability of the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban to strike at the heart of Pakistan’s heavily guarded prison system and walk away with dozens of senior Taliban fighters and commanders.
The overnight assault on the Central Prison took place despite reports that regional officials had received intelligence days, if not weeks, ago suggesting such an attack was imminent.
Officials blamed a combination of negligence and lack of communication among Pakistan’s many security agencies, but some suggested there may have been a degree of insider help.
Some of the guards reportedly just put down their guns when the Taliban attacked, which ended up giving the attackers more guns and ammo. The heavily guarded prison reportedly holds, or held, about 5,000 prisoners, of which 250 were Taliban. The attackers just happened to be able to pinpoint their own people within the prison and free them without freeing the entire population. So the chances that this was an inside job: 100.
Last week, a similar raid freed about 500 senior al Qaeda terrorists from prison in Iraq.
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