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Intelligence agencies say they warned of Bannu jailĀ attack
[Dawn] Pakistain's intelligence services warned the government three months ago about a possible attack on a prison in the restive northwest that was raided at the weekend, officials said Tuesday.

On Sunday nearly 400 prisoners, including jihad boys, beat feet from a jail outside the town of Bannu after an attack by cut-throats armed with guns, grenades and rockets.

The intelligence information was conveyed to the government through a letter dated January 5, 2012, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

The letter identified Bannu jail as a target, along with the Pakistain Air Force base in the northwestern garrison town of Kohat, the Kohat cantonment and a cop shoppe.

"The intelligence information about the possible attacks was shared with the government in January 2012," a senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

More than 150 heavily-armed faceless myrmidons stormed the prison where Taliban and al Qaeda linked faceless myrmidons have carved out their stronghold.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, front man for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) jihad boy group grabbed credit for the attack, which he said was launched to free some of their top members.

A former member of the air force sentenced to death for an attempt to assassinate former president Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
was among the beat feet jihad boys, he said.

Adnan Rasheed was convicted after a bomb planted under a bridge in Rawalpindi near Islamabad in December 2003 went kaboom! moments after Musharraf's motorcade passed. His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.

The intelligence official said Rasheed was the only high-profile jihad boy in the jail and the attackers were heard shouting his name after breaking in.

He said the government had also been warned of future attacks which would not be confined to the troubled northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province.

Another intelligence official said: "Intelligence agencies had intercepted that an attack on Bannu jail to free inmates was being planned. But the date and time of the attack was not known."

He also said Kohat air base, cantonment and Bannu jail had been identified as targets and that law enforcement agencies had been informed.

Posted by: Fred 2012-04-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=343007