500 inmates flee through tunnel under Afghan prison

Proud of its ‘success’, the Taliban said it managed to take out the inmates through a one-kilometre tunnel that took five months to dig. It claimed that the escaped inmates belonged to the militia, including over 100 commanders.

A second Taliban statement said they had started digging the tunnel from a nearby safe house five months ago and that it passed under several government checkpoints and a major highway.

The governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, said at a press conference that intelligence cells and security forces at the prison had “failed in their duties” in not detecting the tunnel.

26 of the escapees were recaptured and two others were shot dead after resisting arrest by security forces.