Interpol criticizes lack of information after Afghan jailbreak

Interpol criticizes lack of information after Afghan jailbreak

2011-04-27 23:35:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) on Wednesday criticized the lack of information and warned of a global security risk after nearly 500 Taliban fighters escaped from a prison in southern Afghanistan.

The massive prison break happened at the Sarposa prison in Kandahar province on early Monday morning after Taliban insurgents finished a 360 meters (1,181 feet)-long underground tunnel from a nearby house. It took more than 5 months to dig the tunnel.

In all, a total of 474 Taliban fighters and one criminal managed to escape the facility unnoticed after which they fled the area with vehicles. More than 60 of them have since been re-captured, but Interpol criticized Afghan authorities as they have not been trained or equipped to take, store and access photographs, fingerprints and DNA of prisoners to share internationally.

"It is simply shocking that three years after the largest prison break in Afghanistan history, including of convicted terrorists, there is no data to be shared with law enforcement regionally and globally in the event of an escape," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble, referring to another mass jailbreak at the same prison in 2008 in which nearly 1,000 inmates escaped.

Noble said Interpol's National Central Bureau in Kabul immediately alerted neighboring countries when it was informed about the prison break on Monday, but its efforts were significantly hampered as it had no strong identifying information to share.

"Until this glaring and serious void in the world's anti-terror efforts is filled, no country can consider itself secure from criminals and terrorists who are essentially being given the opportunity to travel internationally, elude detection and to engage in future terrorist activity," Noble said.

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