BANNU: A militant ‘commander’ who helped plan an assault on the Bannu central jail on Sunday which freed 384 prisoners said his group had inside information.

The Taliban said they were behind the brazen assault by militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles.

“We had maps of the area and we had complete maps and plans of the jail as well,” the ‘commander’, a senior member of the Taliban, told Reuters.

“All I have to say is we have people who support us in Bannu. It was with their support that this operation was successful.”

It was not possible to independently verify that account.

But the inspector general for prisons in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Arshad Majeed, did not rule out collusion.

“It is possible that the attackers had help from the inside. We cannot confirm that but we are investigating to see what happened,” he said.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is seen as the biggest threat to security forces, staging suicide bombings and attacks on military compounds.

The Bannu attackers arrived in a convoy of vehicles, blocking off all access points to the jail before firing rocket-propelled grenades at the black, metal gates of the prison and forcing their way in.—Reuters