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Afghan Prison Revolt Ends with Hundreds Dead - 2001-11-28


Afghanistan's Northern Alliance says it has completely quelled a bloody three-day uprising by pro-Taleban and al-Qaida prisoners-of-war at a fort near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Senior alliance officials said late Tuesday the rebellion has ended and there was no more fighting. But they said they would not enter the compound until later today (Wednesday), fearing some bodies might be booby-trapped with grenades.

Alliance officials say as many as 400 prisoners are believed to have been killed in the revolt, which was quashed with the help U-S airstrikes and special forces on the ground.

Witnesses told reporters scores of bodies are scattered across the courtyard of the fortress.

Meanwhile, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International has called for an urgent inquiry into the uprising and the deadly way it was handled.

Amnesty says the investigation should look into what triggered the prisoner revolt and the proportionality of the response. It called for urgent recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The revolt erupted late Sunday, when some of the prisoners reportedly began firing at guards using smuggled weapons. The rebels - mostly non-Afghan Taleban fighters - were taken to the prison compound after they surrendered last week at the city of Kunduz, which was the last Taleban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.

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