700 Inmates, Including 70 Extremists, Remain Fugitive After Bangladesh Jailbreaks

Dhaka: At least 700 inmates, including convicted Islamist militants and death row prisoners, remained on the run since they fled in jailbreak incidents during the July-August students' uprising that led to the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime, officials said on Wednesday.

Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain said while nearly 2,200 inmates broke different jails across the country, 700 of them are still roaming free and the rests returned to prisons to serve their terms or were rearrested by law enforcement agencies.

“Out of the 700-odd (jail breakers), 70 are extremists and death row convicts,” Hossain told a media briefing.

Widespread students' protests against Hasina's Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system that started mid-July resulted in toppling the five-term prime minister. There were several jail break incidents as chaos ruled supreme in Bangladesh ahead of and after August 5, the day she fled to India.

The prisons chief said 174 known figures, including 11 top listed criminals, gangsters and extremist group leaders, obtained bail from courts after August 5 though police said they kept a vigil on their tracks and movements.

During the several incidents of jailbreaks, a major was in the central Narsingdi district near Dhaka where outsiders attacked the prison on July 19, looted prison guards' weapons and set on fire parts of the facility burning records and documents as well.

A total of 826 prisoners fled the Narsingdi prison in August, officials later said.

At least 209 prisoners fled from the Kashimpur High Security Jail in Gazipur on the outskirts of the capital after holding hostage prison guards, who shot dead six militants on August 8.

On the same day, at least 94 inmates fled from jail in western Kushtia district.

In another incident, 596 inmates fled the southwestern Satkhira jail after miscreants attacked it from outside but over 200 of them returned voluntarily hours later, as officials said, they preferred “to serve the rest of their terms instead of facing harsher punishment.”

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