By Aqeel Yousafzai
District Bannu is at the distance of 45 to 60 kilometers from Waziristan and is approximately 195 kilometers to the south of Peshawar. There are at least five army check posts while there are many police stations on Waziristan-Bannu road. But still, on April 15, Sunday night, more than 200 heavily armed militants with guns, grenades, rockets, riding in dozens of vehicles, stormed into a heavily guarded Bannu jail and freed more than 350 prisoners. They engaged the prison guards and police for more than one hour and then managed to escape successfully from the crime scene without any casualties as if they had never appeared.
Out of 93 policemen guarding the place, 63 were absent, deployed for other duties. Out of 30 remaining who were actually present, only ten were armed while others were without arms. Of the twenty FC personnel who were supposed to be on duty, 14 among them were absent while remaining six were armed on duty, present at their compound. The policemen and guards that did have arms offered little or no resistance to them. Even those police personnel who were unarmed, wore the prisoner’s clothes and started slogans of Allahu Akbar to protect themselves and came out with them. Neither side fired a single bullet nor was a single militant injured.
A police station is located around 1500 meters from Bannu Central Jail, while at a 6-8 kilometers’ distance, two more police stations are located but, in spite of these police stations where the number of police personnel are approximately equal to Taliban riders, neither they made any movement from their own places nor they stopped the convoy of dozens vehicles of militants. In the vicinity, an army unit was also deployed, one that had two helicopters.
The most important point here to mention is that a powerful intelligence organization office is also here, located near the Bannu Central Jail, while the headquarters of the FC is about six kilometers away.
The idea that the militants did not have help from personnel in the security and intelligence apparatus is beyond belief.
In this ongoing war, this was not the first incident of sympathetic insiders helping out the Taliban.
Back in the Swat imbroglio, Ibn-e-Aqeel, an operational commander of Swat militants, had attacked Pir Samiullah, a pro-government leader, and his followers. Pir Samiullah contacted the army unit located at Pir Kalay, about four kilometers from the spot, to assist him against the militants. But the army official refused to help him, saying he required permission from his higher-ups. Samiullah and dozens of his followers were reportedly engaged in a three-hour gunfight with Taliban. After he ran out of ammunition, he was killed, along with five of his brothers. His followers had taken his body along with him and buried it secretly, but a day later, Taliban exhumed his buried body and hanged at a square to set an example.
In December 6, 2010, political agent of Mohmand Agency called pro-government tribal elders and lashkar men in his headquarter while his own staff was absent on this day. Tribal elders and lashkar men were waiting for him in the jirga hall. But during this time, instead of him, two suicide bombers, wearing uniforms of Khasadar Force, entered into the headquarters and set themselves off in this high-profile place, killing 45 persons while injuring seventy others.
On July 24, Mian Rashid Hussain, the only son of Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, was shot dead by the militants. At his funeral in the Pabbi area in Nowshehra, where the incident took place, cordoned off by the forces, a suicide bomber came and blew himself up, killing seven innocent persons.
In efforts to counter militancy in the restive tribal belt in 2007, the government had set up Aman (Peace) Committees across the region, but the security agencies and government machinery did not provide security to them and even disarmed and disbanded some Peace Committees after using them. These became sitting ducks for the militants. Resultantly, militants made 16 attempts on jirgas and some attacked elders of Peace Committees, killing 399 persons, including influential tribal elders.
Slain Frontier Constabulary Commandant Sifwat Ghayur was killed in a suicide bomb blast at Deen’s Chowk on 4 August, 2010 in an area cordoned off twenty-four hours a day by the police and army personnel with checkpoints, while FC headquarter is a few feet away.
In 2010-2011, more than 1200 Khasadar Forces of Khyber Agency refused to perform their duties but the government took no action. In mid-2011, hundreds of Lashkar-e-Islami militants attacked three police stations of Peshawar. The police called for help from army and FC, but no one came to help.
Dera Ismail Khan, Banuu, Mansehra, Kohat, Upper Dir and Peshawar jails are considered sensitive out of the total of 22 jails of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. According to an interior ministry report, around eight hundred militants were present in these jails. However, the wanted and dangerous militants were not more than 200. It means the government has no potential to keep 200 militants in a safe place to prevent terrorist attacks. Last year, some militants in Peshawar Central Jail held hostage all the prisoners, beat them up and forced them to pray and even snatched their money and belongings from them. But the concerned authorities and government did not come into action. Another police and law enforcement agencies’ failure surfaced last year when the Peshawar police took a dangerous militant to the hospital and militants attacked them at University Road and succeeded to free their colleague, killing two policemen in the process.
Despite all these incidents, more than 50 wanted militants had been kept in Banuu Central Jail, very close to Waziristan, showing inefficiency and poor planning of the concerned government institutions on this sensitive issue. Those freed from jail included Adnan Rashid, who was on death row for involvement in an attempt to assassinate ex-Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, commander Noor-e-Din, Safiullah and Ijaz khan. All these had death sentences. According to well place source, Mohammad Yousaf, Azhar Afzal, Hammad Ahmad and Anees were also among those who escaped.
These all are those who the militants had demanded in exchange of the release of abducted Islamia University Peshawar Vice Chancellor Ajmal Khan.
When contacted, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said they freed 50 special members of theirs in this attack. However, intelligence sources have confirmed about 150 prisoners at the Bannu jail, who were involved in terrorist activities. It means that only 50 to 150 terrorists were kept in Bannu jail.
According to the police authorities, the majority of the escaped militants belonged to the Punjabi militant groups. It was also noted that most of the attackers were speaking Urdu and Punjabi. A suspended officer, upon condition of anonymity said to Pique that a few months back, he showed reservations in a high level meeting of officials that these prisoners needed to be shifted to a safe jail, but according to him, his reservations were not addressed seriously.
According to the initial report of investigative team, the attack was due to the police and intelligence failures.
But no heads have rolled. The provincial jails minister, for instance, remains at his portfolio.
