At least six bodies of prisoners were recovered from Kashimpur High Security Central Jail in Gazipur early yesterday, hours after a group of prisoners escaped following demonstrations by some inmates and attack from outside by their "relatives".

Gazipur Deputy Commissioner Abul Fateh Mohammad Safiqul Islam yesterday said, "We are yet to ascertain how many prisoners fled."

The bodies were taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital around 4:00am, said Abul Fazal, officer at the hospital's emergency department.

This newspaper could not confirm how the six prisoners died as the jail's senior superintendent, Subrata Kumar Pal, could not be reached over the phone despite repeated attempts.

Quoting jail officials, Bangla daily Prothom Alo reported that at least 209 prisoners fled.

A group of prisoners started demonstrating around noon on Tuesday demanding release. They tried to flee by breaking a wall and scaling it using a ladder. Jail guards tried to quell the trouble. At one stage, the guards opened fire, leading to the deaths of the six prisoners, reads the Prothom Alo report.

Contacted, the jail's Deputy Jailer Md Farhad Sarkar said multiple attacks were carried out from inside and outside the prison on Tuesday.

He said some relatives of the prisoners tried to break the jail gate to release the prisoners.

There are about 3,000 prisoners in the jail, according to jail sources.

In Kushtia, at least 104 prisoners fled from the district jail around 2:00pm yesterday, said Jailor Abu Musa.

Seeking anonymity, several jail guards said a group of BNP men were scheduled to be released on bail around noon.

When the BNP men were walking out of the jail, several hundreds prisoners created chaos at the gate to get out. At one stage, the jail guards opened fire to foil their attempt.

In Pirojpur, a group of jail guards yesterday kept Pirojpur District Jail Super Debdulal Karmakar confined to his office for about three hours from 12:15pm alleging that he was involved in irregularities and corruption.

On information, Pirojpur Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Aminur Islam went to the jail and got Debdulal and his family members out of the jail compound.

On Monday evening, an unidentified number of prisoners escaped from the Satkhira District Jail. However, at least 200 of them surrendered to the jail authorities a day later, according to jail sources.

On the same evening, a mob stormed the Sherpur District Jail, leading to the escape of 518 inmates.

On July 19, at least 826 prisoners fled the Narsingdi District Jail. During the jailbreak, around 85 arms and 9,000 bullets were looted.

However, around 598 prisoners surrendered later, and 51 arms and 1,085 bullets were recovered.

Our district correspondents from respective districts contributed to this report.