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Posted on 10/12/2003 7:31:37 AM PDT by PatrioticCowboy
Afghans fail to find 41 Taliban jailbreakers
Sun 12 October, 2003 13:31 BST By Mohammad Ismail Sameem
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan authorities say they have so far failed to recapture any of the 41 Taliban prisoners who made an audacious tunnel escape from the main prison in the southern city of Kandahar.
Government officials said the Friday night escape could not have been carried out without the assistance of guards.
And a Taliban commander, Mullah Sabir, told Reuters on Sunday the group paid bribes of 100,000 afghanis to the prison authorities for each of the escapees.
Sabir said some had already reached their destinations, but he did not say where these were.
They included Mawlavi Abdullah, the brother of former Taliban defence minister Obaidullah, and a commander named Aziz Agha.
He said three million afghanis was paid in advance and the rest after the escapes.
Kandahar police chief Mohammad Jashim told Reuters none of the escapees had been recaptured. He said he could not comment on the bribe claim until the investigation was complete.
But Kandahar governor Yusuf Pashtun told Reuters on Saturday that the prisoners, who had been kept in chains, must have had assistance from guards as they had burrowed out an estimated 15 truckloads of earth to make their 30 metre (yard) tunnel.
He said five or six of the escapees were "important" Taliban figures.
"I am 100 percent sure there was cooperation between the prison security and the Taliban," he said. "They managed to dig a 30-metre tunnel, which is clearly not something you can do in a day or two -- it would have taken at least a month."
Pashtun said the escape showed the need to speed up efforts to reform the police force, which virtually disintegrated during the country's long civil war.
The dramatic escape was embarrassing for the government and personally for Pashtun, who only took up his post in August.
It also presents yet another security headache.
Kandahar province, which borders Pakistan, was the birthplace of the Taliban and has been the scene of many recent guerrilla attacks that have curtailed aid and reconstruction.
I'm also wondering why these important criminals weren't airlifted to our "guest facilities" in Guantanamo. Not hearing about any successful escapes from there.
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