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Policemen outside the prison in Dera Ismail Khan in northwest Pakistan, July 30, 2013, after a Taliban militant attack/AFP

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Taliban Free Nearly 250 in Pakistan Jail Break

The Central Prison in Dera Ismail Khan can hold up to 5,000 inmates and around 300 were being held in connection with attacks on security forces and sectarian killings.

But it was not clear how many were present during the assault, which began late Monday and ended early Tuesday.

The city in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is close to Pakistan’s semi autonomous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan where Taliban and Al Qaeda linked insurgents are most active.

The prison break came after more than 1,000 inmates, mostly common criminals, escaped from a Libyan jail in the city of Benghazi during a riot on Saturday.

Last week, militants attacked two prisons in Iraq, freeing at least 500 inmates in bomb, mortar and gun assaults that killed more than 40 people north and west of the capital Baghdad.

The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pervez Khattak, a member of cricket star Imran Khan’s party that advocates peace talks with the Taliban, branded the latest attack a failure of intelligence agencies.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has led a domestic insurgency since 2007 killing thousands of people, claimed responsibility.

“Some 150 Taliban, including 60 suicide bombers, attacked the Central Prison and managed to free about 300 prisoners,” Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told AFP by telephone.

A security official in the city told AFP the militants arrived in more than a dozen vehicles and that two Taliban commanders were among those who escaped.

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“Militants also torched jail records and an office,” he said on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to talk to the media.

Jadoon said the fighters planted dozens of explosive devices in the jail which were later defused by bomb disposal experts.

A curfew was imposed in the city after the attack.

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