Two Islamist militants who escaped from a Pakistani jail last week received help from prison officers who were sympathetic to their jihadist views, officials said Thursday.
The escapees were allegedly behind a 2013 massacre of Western mountain climbers in the Himalayas.
A preliminary investigation suggested that some prison officers had been convinced by the inmates to sympathize with their radical mindset. The guards helped the prisoners escape, two local administration officials told dpa, requesting anonymity.
“It seems some officers were convinced that what [the] militants did was right according to Islam and that they should not be punished,” said one official with knowledge of the investigation.
At least 11 officers linked to the escape were in custody and being interrogated, the official said.
In June 2013, gunmen wearing paramilitary uniforms stormed a base camp on Nanga Parbat Mountain and shot dead 10 mountaineers and their Pakistani guide in an attack that produced global shock and anger.
Habib-ur-Rehman, one of the key suspects in the 2013 attack, fled the jail in the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan last week along with an accomplice, local administration chief Sibtain Ahmed said.
Hazrat Bilal, another suspect, was killed during his escape attempt, while a fourth prisoner was recaptured by guards, Ahmed said.
The jailbreak occurred days after police in the region set up a high-altitude Himalayan unit to protect climbers.
Islamist militants linked with al-Qaeda staged two jailbreaks in Pakistan in 2012 and 2013, freeing hundreds of their associates.
Radicalization among members of the security forces has been a problem for Pakistan.
In 2011, the governor of Punjab province was killed by a police guard from his own security team for opposing the country’s blasphemy laws, which seek death for insulting Islam.
GNA
