Monday, November 14 2005 14:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jehanabad: The Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist) guerrillas, who virtually held sway over Jehanabad last night (Nov 13, 2005), forced the jail guards to open the locks of the wards and created a bomb scare in order to make the inmates flee for their lives.

Scores of naxalites in police uniform used a wooden ladder to scale the walls of the prison and once inside, they opened the main entrance of the prison to allow their comrades in, says Birju, a prisoner.

"The earth under my feet trembled with sounds of huge explosions and gunfire bursts as we were having dinner", Birju, who preferred to stay back instead of fleeing with 341 other inmates, told a visiting sources.

Sudama, another inmate who was still inside one of the wards said the CPI (Maoist) rebels first shot dead two sentries and then forced others to open the locks of various wards.

One of them had a hand-held loudspeaker and he ordered the prisoners to flee saying they had planted a huge bomb inside the jail which was about to explode, says Sudama Sharma, an under trial prisoner.

Soon utter chaos prevailed in the jail crammed with prisoners who headed for the main entrance and vanished into the darkness amid staccato noise of gunfire.

The extremists then asked the inmates about the whereabouts of Bade Sharma whom they dragged out of the ward and shot dead said Birju.

The naxalites raised pro-revolution and anti-government and anti-police slogans before leaving.