700 Bangladeshi prisoners still on run after revolution jailbreaks

Dhaka: Around 700 Bangladeshi prison inmates were still on the run after mass jailbreaks over the summer during the student led revolution that ousted...

Dhaka: Around 700 Bangladeshi prison inmates were still on the run after mass jailbreaks over the summer during the student-led revolution that ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, authorities said on Wednesday.

Hasina fled in August to neighbouring India, where she remains, as her government collapsed at the peak of a popular revolt.

In the weeks before her departure, revolts or sieges by protesters at five prisons around the Muslim-majority South Asian nation saw roughly 2,200 inmates break out of their cells.

Prisons chief Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain told reporters that around 1,500 of that number had since been captured, with the remainder still at large.

Hossain said that at least 70 fugitives were either "terrorists" or death row convicts.