Peshawar: An inquiry committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has found the police, paramilitary force, civil administration and intelligence agencies "collectively responsible" for the April 15 Bannu jailbreak by the Taliban, Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said.
In what was said to be the country`s biggest jailbreak, the Taliban freed convicted "terrorist" Adnan Rashid who masterminded an attack on former president General Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December 2003, reports the Daily Times. He said there are no records available as to who ordered the shifting of Adnan Rashid to Bannu prison.
"There is no law that allows convicted murderers to be sent to another province... Adnan Rashid was illegally shifted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab," Hussain said.
The inquiry report was released days after the Taliban released a video of the attack on the Bannu prison where they freed around 400 prisoners. Some of the prisoners returned voluntarily, some were arrested again and the others are at large.
According to Hussain, Section Officer Muhammad Ghulam had issued an NoC for Adnan Rashid`s shifting to Bannu without taking prior approval from his senior officers. Hussain said 25 officers, including the Bannu DIG and commissioner, were made officers on special duty after the jailbreak and "to avoid legal wrangling the provincial government will initiate departmental action against officers working under the provincial government".
He said those servicemen who had a direct or indirect role in the jailbreak would be dealt with under military laws, adding that the provincial government would build a prison in Bannu with better security infrastructure within two years.
ANI