ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban disguised as policemen attacked a prison in the country’s northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, freeing more than 300 prisoners late on Monday.

The jail officials said that several of the prisoners, four security personnel and two assailants were killed in the attack. The prison was housing at least 5000 prisoners, 250 of them hardcore militants.

Malik Qasim Khattak, advisor to the ministry of prisons, said that around 50 to 60 gunmen attacked the jail with bombs and guns before entering into the detention facility. “They detonated about 60 bombs inside the facility which caused the collapse of prison wall. The assailants succeeded in freeing more than 300 prisoners,” Khattak said, adding that the militants blew up two electricity transformers which created complete darkness.

While accepting responsibility for the attack, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed that their attackers had freed around 300 inmates.

“We had sent around 150 fighters including a squad of suicide bombers. The aim was to free the inmates and it was a successful action as Taliban managed to free at least 300 prisoners,” said Shahidullah Shahid, the newly appointed spokesperson of TTP.

The bombings inside the prison triggered a gunfight between the militants and policemen which continued for hours. As the police personnel could not control the situation, the local administration had called the military. “The attack was so severe and abrupt that we had to call the army to overpower the fighters. As many as 5,000 prisoners including 250 belonging to banned outfits were held in the jail,” said Khalid Abbas, deputy inspector general of prisons of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The law enforcement agencies with the help of army had cordoned off the prison and surrounding area before launching an operation.

The militants also destroyed all the police vehicles with hand grenades, jail officials said.

“The biggest problem for the security forces was to identify the militants as they too were wearing police uniforms. There was complete blackout and it was very much difficult on whom to open fire”, Abbas said. He said that prison authorities had recently received a letter from the intelligence agencies informing about a possible attack on prison. The D I Khan prison is the third biggest detention facility in KP.

Dera Ismail Khan is on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal region of South Waziristan. Pakistan army had launched a military operation against the militants of South Waziristan and flushed them out of the region.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is on the hit list of the militants. About 57 people were killed in twin suicide blasts on Friday in Kurram tribal region. Shaukat Yousafzai, KP’s information minister, said that the incident might be a continuation of the current wave of terrorism in the province.

In April 2012, more than hundred heavily armed militants, affiliated with Pakistani Taliban broke a prison in Bannu town next to North Waziristan tribal region, freeing nearly 400 prisoners. One of the militants freed in that attack was Adnan Rasheed, an ex-official of Pakistan air force, who was involved in attack on president Pervez Musharraf in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Rasheed recently drew media attention by writing a long letter to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year in an attempt to kill her.

