the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan:
The Prison-Break: How To Turn Fantasy To Reality
Zil Hajj 23, 1432 A.H,
Sunday, November 20, 2011
By Abd al-Rauf Hikmat
PART 1
Kandahar Prison
Kandahar’s main prison is located west of the city in the Sarpoza area, north of
Kandahar-Herat highway. It is largest government prison in south Afghanistan,
with the capacity to hold thousands of prisoners. The prison comprises several
sections surrounded by high and impenetrable walls. This prison is fundamentally
well-built, with high surveillance and watch towers set up at its four corners.
It is also surrounded by a number of subterranean walls, further to its high
[over ground] walls, to prevent tunnels being dug to the outside.
Despite its strong construction and tight security measures, this prison has
become the scene of a wonderful story not only in Afghanistan around the globe.
Over the past eight years, political prisoners have been able to escape from
this prison only three times. The first time was in June 2003 when Mujahideen
prisoners dug a tunnel from inside the prison to the outside, enabling all 45 of
this ward’s prisoners to escape via the tunnel. Also in June 2008, the Islamic
Emirate launched armed and martyrdom attacks on this prison that resulted in the
death of all the prison’s guards and released close to 1,200 Mujahideen
prisoners. After this incident, the Americans and Kandahar officials paid close
attention to the maintenance and preservation of this prison; Canadian forces
trained special policemen to guard the prison, watch towers were increased and
monitoring cameras installed; the entire prison was encircled by a deep and wide
trench. Despite all these measures, the Mujahideen were able, after long
planning, for the third time to release 541 prisoners on 25 April 2011.
Pure Fantasy
One of the Mujahideen in Kandahar city, who by his connections gained full
knowledge of the inside and outside of the prison, pondered whether it would be
possible to dig a tunnel from the inside of a house on the other side of the
street into the prison as a means of releasing the prisoners. This fantasy and
vision seemed laughable at first even to its owner; he dared not share his
opinion with others, but, after more time and continued thinking, he reached a
conclusion. On one of these days, while he was riding a motorcycle with two of
his comrades, he shared that view with them. They thought it was impossible and
deemed it dangerous to attempt, but they placed their trust on Allah and shared
their opinion with the Mujahideen high command in Kandahar and they revealed to
their trusted comrades their decision to implement this plan regardless of
danger.
Concrete Workshop
Six months ago these Mujahideen rented a house opposite the south corner of
Kandahar prison. Initially they built a new room. Then they brought in all
necessary equipment and machines to make concrete, hiring a number of workers
who worked during the day. But in the afternoon, when the workers left, the
Mujahideen stayed under the pretence of serving as guards. It was during that
time that they proceeded to dig the tunnel from within the room they had just
built.
Hard Work for Four Months
At first, four Mujahideen implemented this process: one of them was to hit with
the pickaxe, digging the tunnel, while the other three were to move the soil.
The tunnel was narrow and the soil could not be moved out by wheelbarrows, so
some operation planners went to the market and bought a number of children
bicycles, removing their small wheels and fixing barrows on them. They were able
to prepare wheelbarrows that suited their task. Now they filled these barrows
with soil, pulling them by a rope to the tunnel opening and collecting the soil
there before moving it to the lorry. In the morning, when the dirt trucks headed
to the city for its sale, the Mujahideen would bring in their soil-filled lorry
and sell the dirt to get rid of it. For two months, four Mujahideen were working
in the tunnel digging, then their number increased to eight Mujahideen and they
were digging four meters every night. When their continued work reached 100m,
they faced the issue of ventilation and lack of oxygen; nevertheless they
carried on until cutting a distance of 150m. At this point it was terminally
difficult to continue working, due to lack of oxygen, and the work carried on no
further. In the beginning they tried a ground fan; it resolved the ventilation
issue but it was winter and the cold weather caused headaches. Then they made an
air-pumping machine, delivering air by a pipe from the outside to the inside of
the tunnel. This was the best method to resolve the ventilation and lack of
oxygen - the machine worked quietly by a charged battery. But they then realized
the risk of their digging a tunnel under the road that carried the heavy enemy
vehicles to the interior of the prison: There was a possibility of a tunnel
collapse under intense vehicle pressure. The question was how deep was the
tunnel to be dug to exclude that possibility. As an experiment, they parked a
lorry atop the tunnel; it suffered no damage, assuring them that it would not
suffer because of enemy vehicles. The tunnel was 2.5m deep between the house and
the public road, but as a precaution they deepened it further. Four months
passed and the tunnel went 220m, a well iron pipe surprised them before
realizing it was not a prison pipe but a pipe to a village south of the prison.
In fact, the tunnel diggers, having no map, deviated from the correct path to
the right, crossing the road and reaching a village close to the prison. Here
Mujahideen recognizer that the target could only be reached with the prison map
and distance measuring tools.
One and a Half Months of Efficient Work
The tunnel diggers who lost their way and made an extra 120m now downloaded the
prison map off the internet and by which were able to pinpoint the prison
location. Using earth measurement tools they re-dug at the distance of 100m of
the tunnel directly towards the prison. However, with the passing of the winter,
night was shorter. Consequently they increased the number of Mujahideen
labourers until they reached twenty-one. Furthermore, earth evaporates less in
summer, so ventilation was less of an issue, and the work was faster and more
efficient. By digging 166m they reached the middle of the prison (it must be
added that the Islamic Emirate’s site mentioned the distance dug by Mujahideen
including the distance dug by error, giving a total of 360m, when the precise
distance, excluding additional distance, was 266m. It is worth noting, however,
that the tunnel’s height was 70cm and its width 60cm ). The Mujahideen inmates
were in two separate locations within the prison: Most were in the political
ward, where they numbered 530, but a small number were in a room called ‘Tawqif
Khanah’ [detention room]. The tunnel was dug first towards Tawqif Khanah room,
as it held a Mujahid aware of the case. He used to hit the ground for one reason
or another so that the tunnel diggers would know whether they were ahead or
behind or on target. Thus they were able to pinpoint the place, but for
verification they poked a blade into the room, until the prisoner assured them
of hitting the target. They moved on to the political ward. Five days produced a
further 23m, reaching the political ward, cell 7 of which held two prisoners
aware of the case. The aim was to take the tunnel to cell 7. Here again the
tunnel diggers wanted to raise a blade to ascertain and avoid any error when
opening the tunnel to the prison. The Mujahideen were hesitant: were they
underneath cell 6 or 7? To keep the matter secret when the blade would be
raised, the two prisoners held a Quran session; all the rooms were vacant, the
two aforementioned prisoners left, one to room 6 and the other to room 7. When
the blade was raised they realised they were under room 6, contrary to their
expectation. Then two further meters were dug until reaching room 7. Now they
could not vacate the rooms with the Quran completion excuse again, so the
Mujahideen used the afternoon time when prisoners would go out to washing rooms
and get prepared for the noon prayer; the blade was raised and it made it
successfully to room 7. The opening place was specified for the escape operation
day. It should be added that the blade raising operation was made subsequent to
a wise and interesting plan: The prison ground was about 2.5m above the tunnel,
with the tunnel’s height of 70cm, how a long blade could fit through this tunnel
to reach the prison ground? The Mujahideen cut iron blades of 50cm length and
joined them together; when they were raising a blade 50cm by a car jack, they
would fix to it another blade and raise it by the jack. So for dismantling the
blades, they prepared a machine that would be attached to each blade then hit by
a hammer downwards. This was how they were able to pinpoint the location
precisely.
The Plan to Extract the Prisoners
After construction of the tunnel, the persons responsible for digging finished
their work and requested from the Islamic Emirate’s high command guidelines
concerning the plan to extract the prisoners. Therefore officials from Kandahar
Province’s and high ranking officials of the Islamic Emirate held continuous
consultations in order to conduct a secure extraction.
As a result of the consultation, the following plan was adopted. The mastermind
of this operation, who on his own swung the pickaxe laboriously to dig 300m of
the tunnel, would himself be the commander of the prisoner extraction. During
the operation, he would adopt ad-hoc plans as needed. The high command would
tell him about whatever was occurring. The operation would be kept secret until
the last moment of execution. Links would be established with the connected
brothers inside the prison; they would be prepared inside the prison to take
responsibility for organising and moving out the prisoners according to the
plan. Similarly all decisions were taken, delegating the operation command to
the aforementioned individual.
Release Operation
To ensure the best execution of the operation, precautionary measures were
checked and preparatory steps were taken again to solve the ventilation problem
inside the tunnel with the help of a powerful machine to pump air into pipe laid
inside the tunnel. This pipe was perforated in ten places to deliver air to all
parts of the tunnel. Forty-five lamps were also switched on for illumination of
the tunnel. As a precautionary measure, a team of martyrs-to-be were sent to the
areas in the vicinity of the prison to launch a military attack if necessary.
To obscure the operation and for fear it would be exposed, person in charge of
the operation chose five Mujahideen, out of the team of 21 Mujahideen as stated
before on the operation day, so he would not lose all his friends, Insha Allah,
if some bad thing were to happen, Allah forbid. Subsequently, the extraction
team was composed of six persons. At 9:00 A.M, these six told the three
Mujahideen contacts inside the prison,one whom was in the Tawqif Khanah room
while the other two were in the political ward, that the operation would be
carried out that night, Allah willing, and that they should be prepared. The two
contacts in room 7 of the political ward, in order to communicate the plan to
the rest of prisoners about the situation at an appropriate time, prepared a
social gathering in their room and invited one or two persons from each room.
The commander of the operation made the following plan:: four of the six
brothers would enter the tunnel, two would start working to open the tunnel into
the Tawqif Khanah room and two would work to open a tunnel to the political
wing; the remaining two would remain outside the tunnel. The Mujahideen would
extend a telephone wire inside the tunnel, establishing a connection between
brothers outside and the brothers inside and allowing exchange of information
e.g. where the work reached and what needed to be done, etc. The four brothers
entered the tunnel with car jacks and iron rods and started opening the tunnel
to the “Tawqif Khanah” room and the political wing. At about 10 o’clock they
easily opened the “Tawqif Khanah” room floor with the jack.
As for the ground of the political ward, its construction was heavy-duty and it
took the Mujahideen a long time to punch a hole through. The jack was raising
the (cement) concrete ground but due to blocked air in the tunnel it was
difficult to make a hole. After many trials the Mujahideen were able to smash
through the ground. After cutting a huge hole to the ward’s cell7, the brothers
down the tunnel gave four pistols and four daggers to the involved brothers for
use in the operation. They also gave them a telephone handset to establish a
connection with the brothers outside the tunnel. Thus the prisoners continued to
leave the prison until 1.30 am (25-04-2011) and approximately 250 prisoners
exited this way. But the work team realised that if the extraction continued in
this way it would last until 2 o’clock, while the plan was for the prisoners to
not tarry long outside the prison, because waiting till dawn would be dangerous
and possibly cause the operation to be botched. Therefore, the team postponed
the extraction of prisoners for half an hour. They started letting prisoners out
again at 2am. By 3am no prisoner remained in this wing. We would like to add
that all prisoners were being inspected at the entrance and exit of the tunnel.
Carrying their luggage with them could have caused their detention and
re-arrest. Also upon exiting, surpluses of more than 3,000 rupees were taken and
given to those who did not have any money.
The extraction operation was properly organised. The tasked brothers would wake
up the prisoners in each room in turn and guide them to the tunnel. At the exit
they would ride the lorries parked at the house; each lorry would carry 36
persons. It was 3:10 am when all the prisoners left and lorries were allowed to
depart. The lorries left from the yard but some brothers headed to the town
suburbs on foot - they were instructed to cut a distance before returning to the
Kandahar-Herat highway after daybreak and to leave the yard using taxis.
It must also be added that two of these lorries that were transporting the
prisoners made two journeys to transport them. By 3:30 or 4:00 am no prisoner
was in the areas around the prison. It is noteworthy to say that by Allah’s
favour and then the Mujahideen carefulness and sagacity, the enemy detected
nothing throughout the operation concerning what was going on near them. Even
though the house used in the operation was located near a watch tower and
surveillance cameras were also installed in the direction of the doors of house,
the enemy thankfully did not discover anything.
Costs of the operation
We must add that there were no losses and the Mujahideen do not fire a single
bullet, also the financial costs were much lower than expected. According to the
person in charge of the operation, the expenses during the operation’s five
months reached about 900,000 Afghanis ($20,000 ). These included the house fees,
Mujahideen food, lorry charges and other equipment the Mujahideen left in the
house after the operation. On the last day of the operation, the person in
charge who built the concrete workshop for the operation execution stated: we
sold during the five months 150 concrete blocks, making much profit. He added:
After the operation and the final exit, when the house gate was locked, we left
the air pumping machine, 45 lamps, 10 concrete blocks, a pole valued at 50,000
Afghanis, 2 power generators, 2 wheelbarrows, 2 car jacks and some building
material; but this historic house much benefited us, that compared to it, the
expenses mentioned are not worth anything.
PART 2
I was the second person who came out!
(Prisoner Tells his Story)
Narrator of story: Muhammad Idris
Preparation of draft: Habib Mujahid
Muhammad Idris, a 23-year old Kandahar resident, had for many years been
launching surprise operations in Kandahar city under the Islamic Emirate’s
command, was caught 7 months ago by the enemy in Kandahar city and sent to
Kandahar prison. The above-mentioned individual says that he has not yet been
tried. During his captivity, he lived in cell 9 of the huge prison with other 15
Mujahideen. He was the second man among hundreds of Mujahideen to exit the
prison via the tunnel dug from that known house to the prison.
Let us allow Muhammad Idris to tell us his story himself:
The Kandahar prison is set up so: in the middle of the political wing there is a
large courtyard and all cell doors open onto this courtyard, so the wing’s main
gate is always locked while the internal room doors are always open. Therefore,
the prisoners are able to enter other rooms without difficulty and to gather
together for the community prayers. On Monday, the inmates of the cell into
which the tunnel opened hosted the rest of their friends. They invited from each
one or two persons from each cell, in addition to the wing’s prayer imam, an
imprisoned scholar, while I represented my cell. So we went for dinner. We had
dinner and then Maulavi, the prayer imam, started talking. After some beneficial
advice, the sheikh started telling the persons present about the escape plan.
None of us knew anything about the subject until then. During his talk he told
the prisoners sitting in the room: “Tonight there will be an operation to free
and release us; we had better be ready for it” He added,“Anyone of you getting
out is ordered not to use his mobile until tomorrow afternoon. If he talks on
his mobile he must be careful not to mention how he got out.”
After these instructions, Maulavi told those present, “You must pray to Allah
Almighty with sincerity for the success of this operation.” We all started
invoking Allah and for half an hour all brothers were busy with invocations and
prayers. After that brothers who were aware of the plan came to the
above-mentioned cell. They cleared the items and rug in a special part of the
room, and in a few moments knocked at the cleared area. The brothers inside the
tunnel under the cell put a car jack underneath the space. And they continued
the pressure until they destroyed the concrete floor. As this place was low,
they brought several columns in order for to break concrete ground, they put
columns above the jack and lifted them up. They repeated this two or three times
until a huge hole was opened in the middle of the room. Thereafter, the brothers
inside the tunnel gave prisoners several pistols, daggers and knives and they
also gave them a box containing a telephone headset, a video camera and other
equipment which I did not recognize. I looked to the tunnel and saw two
Mujahideen: the one who gave the box and another with him. Both drew back and
headed to the other opening. At this point the prison escape was delegated to
the Mujahideen prisoners who were aware of the operation. They linked the
telephone headset with the wire, establishing a connection with the Mujahideen
on either side of the tunnel: inside and outside of the prison. These prisoners
who were in on the operation then distributed the arms among themselves and
other reliable Mujahideen.
This wing had 2 cells of criminal prisoners as well as a number of government
spies among the prisoners. The Mujahideen resolved that, if such spies attempted
to cause a dispute or chaos or attempted to alert the prison guards, we could
them with these weapons and knives. They also used to say that these operations
are difficult to achieve and if some brothers would not trust it and shy away
from going out, we would force them with these arms to exit. Meanwhile, those
brothers briefed on the operation said to the prisoners prior to going down the
tunnel: “When you go out on the other side of the tunnel, you will meet a number
of Mujahideen. They will take extra money from you, mobiles and other items.
They will allow you neither to talk nor to leave; don’t disobey their
instructions, but obey them. So we said, fine, we’ll do that
Now I was the second man in the group sitting in the cell towards the tunnel,
the first prisoner went down and I followed. The tunnel was wide, but not very
wide, I mean we could walk stooped or crawl easily. But the Mujahideen dug it
surprisingly - every 15m there was a lamp, so the tunnel was illuminated. Also
the Mujahideen laid a 6 inch diameter plastic pipeline along the tunnel for
ventilation and used a device in to pump air into the pipe. Small holes were
made along the pipe, so I did not feel lack of air in the tunnel. Additionally
two wires were laid in the tunnel, one was for the telephone and I did not know
whether the other was for electricity or otherwise. For 15 minutes we moved
inside the tunnel until reaching the other side, one person was in front of me
and a large number were behind me. Upon reaching the tunnel exit there were 15
armed Mujahideen. They inspected all people exiting from the tunnel, taking from
them their mobiles and SIM cards. If the prisoner had money more then 3000
rupees, they took the extra and placed it in a cloak they had. If a prisoner had
no or little money, they gave them 3,000 rupees from the money they had taken
from the others. This was the best method for everyone to have money that would
help with any contingencies until they reached their destinations.
After exiting the tunnel, I saw three Mujahideen I knew, so they had me join me
to them carrying out the operation. In the house were six transport vehicles.
The brothers told us to make anyone exiting from the tunnel get in the cars
after inspection and ordered them not to talk and to say nothing, and to only
invoke the name of Allah internally, as the house was near a prison tower; if
disorder was to occur the enemy might notice. This way the prisoners exited from
the tunnel and we made them get into the vehicles. Whenever a vehicle was full
we would cover it with a tarp and conceal it. When all brothers finished, some
friends said: “Not much space is left in the cars. Brothers who know the area
and streets of the town should go on foot to the town suburbs”. The gate of the
house gate faced the prison while the back of it faced a residential area. We
made a hole in the back wall and the brothers for whom there were no cars wanted
to go to the outskirts of the city on foot. I and four of my friends who were
city residents discussed it among ourselves and agreed to go to the city. At
this point the cars left the house and the five of us went out minutes later to
the street. We waited a little while on the pavement until a taxi came, heading
towards to the city. So we got in,and the time was 4 am. A policeman stopped our
car at Dand roundabout but waved us on. The same inspection was repeated at
Madad roundabout, and the policeman said nothing. We reached the city and we had
truly been delivered.
There is a saying I must mention here:
The prisoners in the political wing of Kandahar prison are all Mujahideen. There
was another wing close by the political wing called Tawqif Khanah where there
was also a cell in which Mujahideen were kept. The Mujahideem dug a secondary
tunnel to that cell from the main tunnel, and 10-15 Mujahideen prisoners were
able to escape from that cell, praise be to Allah.
In the morning, I was wandering in the city and following the news,. I think the
enemy did not know about the Mujahideen escape from the prison until 8 am, as I
saw no mandatory checks being carried out in the city. After 8am, the enemy
began hasty action. The prison guards used to count us twice every day: at 8am
and in the afternoon. I think that when they arrived to the political wing at 8
am to count the prisoners, and did not find any of them, only then did they
start searching for them. According to my knowledge, not a single Mujahid
remained in the prison’s political wing, but there was a room for the mentally
ill and they remained inside the prison. As for the other wounded and sick
prisoners, all were freed. There was wounded prisoner with two iron bolts in his
legs. While walking through the tunnel, one of the bolts became separated and he
passed out from the extreme pain But Mujahideen carried him out in this
condition, got him out of the tunnel and transported him away by car.
Translated From The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan: Al-Somood Magazine Issue #60 (May-June 2011)
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan