Free Republic

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban disguised as policemen attacked a prison in the country's northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, freeing more than 300 prisoners late on Monday. Malik Qasim Khattak, advisor to the ministry of prisons, said that around 50 to 60 gunmen attacked the jail with bombs and guns before entering into the detention facility. "They detonated about 60 bombs inside the facility which caused the collapse of prison wall. The assailants succeeded in freeing more than 300 prisoners," Khattak said, adding that the militants blew up two electricity transformers which created complete darkness.

PESHAWAR: A suicide car-bomber attacked a police van in Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including three policemen, a doctor said. There has been a relative lull in militant violence in recent weeks since government forces stepped up offensives in the Orakzai and Khyber regions of the northwest after largely clearing Pakistani Taliban strongholds in other areas. The bomber attacked the police van in which an officer and some of his men were travelling to their police station, said policeman Iftikhar Khan. A doctor at the town's main hospital said 12 dead and 10 wounded people had been...