Hundreds of prisoners in Pakistani prison were released yesterday after a daring assault by Taliban fighters.

 

Of the 944 prisoners the facility held, 384 escaped, Pakistan officials confirmed. Some of those who initially escaped had returned voluntarily by Monday, but most were still the target of a massive military manhunt by Pakistani forces.

 

The assualt on the prison facility came on the same day as large-scale coordinated Taliban attacks took place across neighboring Afghanistan.

 

The attackers stormed the prison before dawn in the city of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province close to the Afghan border, said police officer Shafique Khan. They used explosives and hand grenades to knock down the main gates and two walls, said Bannu prison superintendent Zahid Khan.

"They were carrying modern and heavy weapons," said Zahid Khan. "They fired rockets."