QUETTA, Nov 1: Armed men got six prisoners freed from the Turbat district jail on Wednesday after killing three wardens and injuring three others in a shootout. “The six prisoners who escaped were involved in narcotics, kidnapping for ransom, dacoity and murder cases,” District Police Officer Zahoor Baloch told Dawn.

According to police, some people went to the jail at around 11.45am and told the staff that they wanted to meet the prisoners who were their relatives. The jail staff allowed them.

After entering the jail, they overpowered the staff at gunpoint and got six prisoners freed.

They opened indiscriminate fire when wardens posted outside the jail tried to intercept them.

Jail Wardens Jumma Khan, Abdul Ghafoor and Liaquat were killed and four others injured in the firing. The assailants and the prisoners escaped in two vehicles.

“We have found a car which the armed men abandoned while fleeing in the mountains,” the Turbat DPO said, adding that police were chasing the fleeing prisoners and their accomplices and all exit points of the area had been blocked.

He said police were investigating how the armed men managed to enter the jail.

He said that the prisoners who escaped included an Iranian national arrested under Foreigners Act, Pazeer Ahmed; and Abdul Rasool, Mohammad Bakhsh, Mohammad Shakir, Tabish and Mohammad Yasin, who were involved in drugs and gun running, murder, dacoity and kidnapping for ransom.