JALALABAD (SW) – About 20 hours after gunmen stormed Nangarhar central prison, a government source told Salam Watandar that a number of prisoners had escaped.
The source also quoted a prisoner as saying that not all of the attackers spoke Persian and Pashto and were most likely citizens of foreign countries.
Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, had previously said that there were about 1,793 prisoners in the prison at the time of attack. According to him, security forces arrested 1,025 prisoners while escaping. He added that security forces had rescued 430 detainees from the prison and that a number of detainees had been killed and wounded, and some had disappeared.
According to Nangarhar security officials, 338 of the 1,793 detainees are missing.
A spokesman for the Nangarhar governor said 29 people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed and at least 50 others were injured in the attack.
At around 6:45 pm on Sunday, a number of armed assailants attacked the prison. According to security officials, the attack began with a car bomb exploding at the entrance to the prison, after which the assailants entered the prison building.
On Monday, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) issued a statement saying that 5 assailants were killed inside the prison during the clean-up operation, and the prison building was taken over by the security forces.
Sources told Salam Watandar that the number of attackers reached thirty.
The Ministry of Defense said three prisoners had been killed by the attackers, two of whom were members of the Taliban.
On the last day of cease-fire, the Taliban denied involvement in this attack while Daesh claimed responsibility.
ENDS
