Afghan forces have recaptured at least 65 of the prisoners who escaped from the south's largest prison, the government said Tuesday as it scrambled to recover from the massive security breach that allowed 480 inmates to be spirited out in a stunning jailbreak.
Prison officials discovered early Monday morning that the convicts nearly all of them Taliban militants were missing from their cells, and then found the tunnel through which they appeared to have made their getaway. The Taliban said the prison break was five months in the making, with diggers starting the tunnel from under a nearby house while they arranged for inmates to get cell keys so that they could open their cells on the night of the escape.
The Kandahar provincial governor's office said that Afghan and international forces are working together to find the missing convicts and re-arrest them. It said the troops have already caught 65 and killed two who tried to resist. Authorities have biometric data on each prisoner, which aids in their identification, the statement said. But even if a sizeable number of the convicts are recaptured, the already weak provincial government will likely continue to struggle to recover from the blow to its image.
In eastern Paktia province on Tuesday, the provincial governor narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt by insurgents. A roadside bomb exploded just behind a vehicle taking Gov. Juma Khan Hamdard to his office, said Rohallah Samon, a spokesman for the governor. Hamdard was not hurt, but three policemen who were in a chase vehicle were slightly injured, Samon said.
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