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Kashif Abbasi, a senior police official, said 216 inmates fled
the prison in the capital of Sindh province before dawn. Of
those, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing trial
as a militant is among those who fled, he said.
One prisoner was killed and three security officials were
wounded in the ensuing shootout, but the situation has been
brought under control, Abbasi said, adding that police are
conducting raids to capture the remaining escapees.
Ziaul Hassan, the home minister of Sindh province, said the
jailbreak occurred after prisoners were evacuated from their
cells for safety during the earthquake. The inmates were still
outside of the cells when a group suddenly attacked guards,
seized their weapons, opened fire and fled.
The superintendent of Malir prison, Arshad Shah, said the
inmates fled toward a nearby residential area. According to
residents, police later used mosque loudspeakers to alert them
to the jailbreak and seek help in arresting the escapees.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who is not related to the
prison official, asked the escapees in televised comments to
voluntarily return, saying they had only been involved in minor
crimes until that point. But he said they could face terror
charges if they are arrested by police on the jailbreak charge.
Though prisoners have escaped while being transported to court
for trial, prison breaks are not common in Pakistan, where
authorities have enhanced security since 2013 when the Pakistani
Taliban freed more than 200 inmates in an attack on a prison in
the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan.
Karachi has experienced several mild and shallow earthquakes in
the past 24 hours, ranging from 2.6 to 3.4 in magnitude,
according to the National Seismic Monitoring Center.
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