Prison escape bid leaves six dead
Four foreign inmates overpowered their guard and took his AK-47 rifle, starting a shoot-out at Kabul’s main prison today that left at least six dead, the jail’s warden said.
The men – an Iraqi and three Pakistanis – used shaving razors to attack the guard who was leading them to morning prayers, taking his gun and then beating and stabbing him to death, said Abdul Salam Bakhshi, head of the Pule Charki prison.
A gun battle then broke out that killed three other guards and two of the would-be escapees.
Two of the Pakistanis scavenged a second gun and remained holed up with both rifles on the jail’s war-damaged second floor, Bakhski said. An armoured personnel carrier was brought to the scene,
The two dead inmates had been released from a jail in norther Afghanistan run by General Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords, then were arrested in Kabul for unspecified criminal offences, Bakhshi said.
The jail is for those who have committed criminal offences and is unrelated to the detention facilities that the US military runs for captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
