More than 240 prisoners escape in Pakistan jailbreak More than 240 escaped, including 35 of what local officials described as "high-value" inmates. Shahid Ullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), quickly claimed responsibility. "We had sent around 150 fighters for this activity that also included a suicide bomber squad, comprising of seven members," he said. Prison raids have been a feature of TTP activity. Last year, militants freed 300 prisoners from a prison in Bannu, including Adnan Rasheed, a former Pakistan Air Force technician jailed for his part in a plot against the then president, Pervez Musharraf. Since then he has played a key role in militant propaganda. Earlier this month he circulated an open letter to Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old girl left for dead by militant gunmen last year. A senior TTP figure, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The plot's architect was Adnan Rasheed and he has been given additional responsibility to organise more such attacks to free inmates from jail and the custody of security forces." Analysts said Pakistan had been abuzz with intelligence reports of threats to prisons and questioned why terrorists remained in facilities such as the central jail in Dera Ismail Khan, built more than 150 years ago. Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad , said lessons should have been learned in the wake of the Bannu jailbreak. "It reflects very badly on the lack of preparedness and the state of response by the Pakistan security forces," he said. The attack overshadowed the much-anticipated election of Mamnoon Hussain, the ruling party candidate, as president. He will play a largely ceremonial role once the term of Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower, comes to an end in September.