Afghan justice minister claims mass jail escape had ‘inside help’

HUNDREDS of insurgents who escaped from a jail in Afghanistan’s volatile south through a tunnel dug by the Taliban must have received inside help from prison guards or officials, the Afghan government said.

Afghan authorities and foreign troops have launched a manhunt after the embarrassing breakout, which President Hamid Karzai’s office called a “disaster” ahead of the summer fighting months and as NATO and the United States begin preparing for a gradual withdrawal.

Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of southern Kandahar province, also said 71 of the 488 prisoners who escaped had been recaptured. The Taliban said as many 541 had escaped through the tunnel and were later driven away.