Bodies of 3 Pakistanis killed in prison shootout repatriated

[seemslikeadream]

Pakistan Times National News Desk

KABUL (Afghanistan): The bodies of three Pakistanis, were repatriated home on Sunday, two days after they were killed in a shootout at a prison in Afghanistan, an official said.

The three men were allegedly involved in a daylong standoff with security forces at Kabul's notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison on Friday, in which an Iraqi inmate and four prison guards also died.

Three vans carrying bodies arrived Saturday afternoon at Torkham, the main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Peshawar, said Dost Mohammed, a Pakistani border security official.

....

The Pul-e-Charkhi prison is located near Kabul where summary executions had once been carried out by various Afghan regimes, including the Taliban, which a U.S.-led coalition of forces ousted from power in late 2001 for harboring terrorists.�œ

more
http://pakistantimes.net/2004/12/20/national2.htm

Jailbreak may have targeted Americans

By Paul Alexander
Associated Press


KABUL, Afghanistan - An inmate injured in a deadly Afghan prison shootout will be questioned to determine if he and four comrades, all once suspected of belonging to al-Qaida, were trying to escape or were attempting to attack three American prisoners, the jail warden said Saturday.
Officials initially said four inmates - three Pakistanis and an Iraqi - were involved in the daylong fray at Kabul�fs notorious Pul-e Charkhi jail that left the four prisoners and four guards dead. But warden Abdul Salam Bakhshi said Saturday that another prisoner who was injured also was involved.

....

Jonathan Idema, Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo are seeking to overturn their convictions from a trial that embarrassed U.S. and NATO forces and sowed confusion about Washington�fs role in Afghanistan.

Idema�fs attorney, John Tiffany, said his client called him from the prison and said the Americans had been targeted for death by the inmates who attempted the jailbreak.

....

The five inmates had all once been held in a northern jail run by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of country�fs most powerful warlords, on suspicion of fighting alongside al-Qaida and the Taliban, though they were all released earlier this year, suggesting they were not considered high-level militants. They were re-arrested in Kabul for unspecified common crimes several months ago.

Pul-e Charkhi, located on the capital�fs outskirts, was the scene of summary executions under a series of Afghan regimes, most recently the hard-line Taliban. In August, a U.N. human rights expert urged the immediate release of an estimated 725 Taliban fighters taken prisoner in 2001, saying they were living in conditions that violate "every standard of human rights."

more
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/12192004/world/54811.htm


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