Security forces with tanks and heavy guns surrounded Kabul's main prison yesterday, as authorities resumed negotiations with rioting prisoners but warned they could use force.
Gunfire continued to ring out from Policharki jail on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, where officials say al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners incited a riot by hundreds of inmates late Saturday and took control of much of the prison.
Mohammed Ibrahim Sahdat, a government negotiator, told journalists after talking to the prisoners that four of the rioters had been killed and 38 wounded.
Hamidullah, a prison medic, said inmates had written in notes thrown to him from cell windows that five inmates had been killed and 30 injured in two separate cell blocks in firing by police guards.
It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.
Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister, said he wanted to end the standoff peacefully, but warned that the government could use force.
"We can take all these prisoners in one hour," he told reporters as he traveled to the prison to restart negotiations. "But to prevent bloodshed we are trying to negotiate."
Prison authorities cut off water, electricity and food to the rioters, said Abdul Salaam Bakshi, chief of prisons in Afghanistan.
From inside the jail, inmates could be heard shouting, "God is Great!"
They were armed with small knives and clubs fashioned from wrecked furniture, but did not have guns, Bakshi said on Sunday.
The unrest broke out late Saturday in Block Two of the prison, which houses about 1,300 of its 2,000 inmates, including 350 al-Qaeda and Taliban, after prisoners refused to put on new uniforms, delivered in response to a breakout last month by seven Taliban prisoners who had disguised themselves as visitors.
Hashimzai confirmed that rioting had also spread on Sunday to Block One, which houses hundreds more inmates. He said no prisoners had escaped.
A man claiming to be a spokesman for the inmates in Block One called reporters and demanded retrials for all the prisoners, saying many were innocent while others had been given unfairly harsh prison sentences.
The man, who identified himself only by the name Maqsodi, said the riot would continue until the government met their demands.
"Two-thirds of the prisoners here are innocent. The courts were unfair," he said.
It was not possible immediately to 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 inside parts of the jail under prisoners' control, including a wing of the prison housing its 70 female inmates and about 70 children who live with them.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS