Taliban militants broke into a jail in Afghanistan on Monday, situated on the outskirts of the country's central city of Ghazni, and killed a few policemen. The insurgents also released 355 prisoners.
"At least 148 of the escaped inmates are considered to be a serious threat to national security," The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the country's Interior Ministry.
The incident took place at 2 am on Monday, when the Taliban fighters stormed the prison by firing rocket-propelled grenades at the watchtowers and using a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla outside the prison main entrance, according to Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, Ghazni's deputy governor.
Disguised in police uniforms, six Taliban insurgents attacked the jail killing four police officers and wounding another seven. The jail had a total of 436 prisoners.
Before storming the prison, the insurgents targeted several places in the city to divert the attention of the security forces, Ahmadi said.
"There was an organized attack around 2:00 a.m. on the Ghazni prison, to make their plan successful the enemy at the same time launched attacks in different locations of the city as well."
While the interior ministry praised the quick reaction of the police to the incident, many locals expressed "frustration".
"The officials know what their job is, but they are not doing it,"Abdul Qayum Hasanyar, 49, a Ghazni resident, told The Guardian.
"If they don't want to do their job, they should resign. I worry that one day the province will fall to the Taliban but no one is doing anything. The future is very dark," he said.
The Taliban had carried similar attacks on several prisons in the past, freeing some hundreds of inmates. In such attacks in 2008 and 2011 in Kandahar, the Taliban had helped around 1,300 prisoners to escape.
