Kabul, Afghanistan – Security forces backed by tanks and heavy guns surrounded Kabul’s notorious main prison today as authorities negotiated with rioting prisoners controlling most of the facility. A government negotiator said four inmates were killed during the rebellion blamed on al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Authorities warned they were prepared to use force to end the two-day standoff. Gunfire rang out from Policharki jail on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.
“We can take all these prisoners in one hour,” deputy justice minister Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai told The Associated Press as he traveled to the prison today. “But to prevent bloodshed we are trying to negotiate.” Government negotiator Mohammed Ibrahim Sahdat told journalists after talking to the prisoners that four rioters had been killed and 38 wounded during the siege. Officials said the violence began when inmates refused to put on new uniforms, which were ordered after seven Taliban prisoners escaped last month by disguising themselves as visitors.
Prison authorities cut off water, electricity and food to the rioters, said Abdul Salaam Bakshi, chief of prisons in Afghanistan.
Inmates could be heard inside shouting, “God is Great!” The riot started late Saturday in Block Two of the prison, which houses about 1,300 of the 2,000 inmates, including 350 al-Qaeda and Taliban loyalists.
Hashimzai confirmed that rioting spread Sunday to Block One, which houses hundreds more inmates. No prisoners had escaped, he said.
A man claiming to be a spokesman for the Block One inmates called The Associated Press and demanded retrials for all the prisoners, saying many were innocent while others were serving unfairly harsh sentences.
The man, who identified himself only as Maqsodi, said the riot would continue until the government met prisoners’ demands.
“Two-thirds of the prisoners here are innocent. The courts were unfair,” he said. It was not possible to immediately confirm the man’s identity.
Sahdat, the government negotiator who is also a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, confirmed that some prisoners were demanding their cases be retried.
Security forces had yet to gain access to parts of the jail under prisoner control, including a wing housing 70 women inmates and about 70 children living with them.
A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the prisoners dug a tunnel to that wing to reach it. Soldiers at the prison, however, reported the prisoners had made a hole in a wall.
Hashimzai said attempts to negotiate the women’s release from the rioters’ control floundered Sunday because of disunity among the inmates and confusion over their demands.
Mir Hayatullah Hashimi, another deputy minister of justice, said prisoners had demanded negotiations with top government officials, including the chief of Afghanistan’s reconciliation commission, a vice president and the chief of the Supreme Court.
Policharki was built in the 1970s and is notorious for its harsh and crowded conditions. But it is under renovation ahead of the expected arrival of some 110 Afghan terror suspects later this year from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Afghan officials say.
Riots and breakouts have cast doubts over its readiness.
In December 2004, four inmates and four guards died during a 10-hour standoff that started when some al-Qaeda militants used razors to wrest guns from guards and then tried to break out.
Afghan troops stormed the prison and fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades to retake control.
