[2] On July 27, a letter marked “secret” and “most immediate” by the ISI addressed to the commissioner, deputy commissioner, deputy inspector general of police, district police officer and the superintendent of Dera Ismail Khan central jail, stated: “It has been reliably learnt that miscreants namely Umer Khitab and his associates affiliated with Gadanpur Group/Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan are planning to carry out terrorist attack against Central Jail – Dera Ismail Khan on the pattern similar to Bannu jailbreak in near future.

A nearby house was also reportedly attacked where the militants took the residents hostage and laid an ambush for security forces’ reinforcements.

[5] Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying 150 militants took part and about 300 prisoners were freed.

Eight of the attackers wore suicide vests and two detonated their explosives, Shahid told the Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A curfew had been imposed in Dera Ismail Khan and the nearby town of Tank while the search contented,[10] One of the militants freed in the attack was Adnan Rasheed, who had recently gained attention by writing a letter to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.