Kandahar Jail Governor Detained After Mass Breakout

General Ghulam Dastgir, the governor in charge of the Kandahar jail, has been arrested in connection with a recent breakout

Reports say the governor of the Afghan prison where hundreds of insurgents this week escaped through a tunnel built by the Taliban has been detained along with several top aides.

General Ghulam Dastgir, who headed the high security jail in the southern city of Kandahar, was said to have been detained following a preliminary investigation.

A spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province confirmed several detentions at the prison, but declined to name anyone.

On April 25, nearly 500 detainees, many of them Taliban fighters, escaped from the prison through a tunnel built by accomplices from outside, in the second mass breakout at the prison in three years.

The Afghan justice minister said the escapees must have had inside help.

compiled from agency reports