From Our Correspondent
TURA: A hardcore GNLA commander made a daring escape from Tura district jail during an early evening prison break while as half a dozen other prisoners were rounded up by security forces on Saturday.
A group of prisoners lodged inside Ward No III of the jail made their way out of the cell after reportedly cutting through the iron bars of the cell gate which had eroded with time and weather.
The escape was led by GNLA rebel Kennedy T Sangma.
Kennedy escaped from the prison ward by scaling the wall of the jail with bedsheets.
One of his accomplices, identified as Rakkan, was caught hiding near the wall of the prison which he failed to scale during the ‘great escape’.
“Kennedy escaped using a bed sheet with a brick as weight to scale across the prison walls,” informed police officials who rushed to the site of the incident as soon as the alarm was raised at around 7:30 pm.
A massive manhunt has been launched to recapture the rebel.
The militant is wanted in several criminal cases including the murder, extortion and attack on security forces. He was booked under Meghalaya Prevention of Disruptive Activities (MPDA) Act and had been transferred to Tura jail in the month of May this year.
How such a daring escape could take place at so early in the evening has baffled jail authorities given that there are four watch towers manned by armed guards round the clock.
Jail sources revealed that over a dozen prisoners had tried to break free after the mastermind Kennedy scaled the walls but seeing the futility of the attempt many stayed behind.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya DGP (Prisons) Prem Singh told a news agency that a departmental inquiry would be conducted to find out the lapses
The last time Tura district jail witnessed a major attempt at jail break was in 2009 when as many as 13 jail inmates attacked jail officials and overpowered a warden hoping to flee. Prison guards opened fire injuring one of the conspirators and forcing the rest to flee back to their cells. (With inputs from agency)