Afghan police have arrested the prison governor and fellow police officers after a mass break-out from a jail in southern Afghanistan, officials and a source said Thursday.
The security breach at Kandahar jail in southern Afghanistan overnight Sunday saw 488 prisoners escape through a one-kilometre (half-mile) tunnel lined with lights and an air pipe.
A total of 71 have now been recaptured, according to provincial officials.
President Hamid Karzai’s office has said there were signs it was an inside job, while Interpol added it showed a failure by the international community to properly train Afghan authorities.
Kandahar provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayubi told AFP that local police had now made a number of arrests in relation to the case.
“There are several people arrested on accusations of either negligence or cooperating with the jail break,” he said, without giving details on who they were or how many were held.
But a senior Kandahar police source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said: “The chief of the prison, two of his deputies… and four guards who were on duty on the night of the jail break have been arrested.”
Three heads of police from different districts in Kandahar are also being held, he added.
