The fire at Malabero prison in Bengkulu on Sumatra Island began Friday night after officers of the anti-narcotics agency entered the facility and took away a drug kingpin, said regional police chief Brig. Gen. M. Ghufron.
He said the inmates were believed to be acting in solidarity with the kingpin, who was allegedly controlling the business from inside the prison.
Five inmates were killed in the fire, one was being treated while 252 others have been moved to Bentiring, another prison in the same town.
Indonesia, which has extremely strict drug laws and often executes smugglers, has been intensifying raids as a number of users jumped from 4.2 million to nearly 6 million last year.
More than 130 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.
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