Top police officials sacked in Afghan province after jailbreak

Jun 26, 2008, 12:18 GMT

Kabul - Three top police officials in the southern province of Kandahar have been dismissed by the Afghan interior ministry for their failure to prevent the jailbreak of hundreds of prisoners on June 13, a government statement said.

Kandahar police chief Syed Aqa Saqib, the security chief of the province and the crime branch chief were sacked and summoned to the Office of Attorney General for interrogation.

The statement said a high-level delegation from the interior ministry sent to Kandahar soon after the jailbreak found that the provincial police officials were faulty for not taking enough measures to avert the jailbreak.

'The Ministry of Interior of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officially dismisses General Syed Aqa Saqib Kandahar police chief, chief of security and the crime branch chief of the province from their jobs and are summoned to the office of Attorney General for questions,' the statement read.

More than a thousand prisoners, mostly Taliban, escaped after a suicide attack dispersed the prison guards in the night of June 13 in outskirts of Kandahar city.

Head of the Kandahar provincial council Ahmad Wali Karzai told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa security has dramatically deteriorated in the recent weeks in Kandahar and that replacement of the police officials was needed to improve the situation.

He said the police have failed in the past two weeks in preventing the jailbreak and in stopping the Taliban who captured Arghandab district, which lies very close to Kandahar city.

Arghandab was captured by the Taliban for three days last week. They were later forced to leave the district headquarters after a heavy offensive by Afghan and NATO troops.