Prisoners of duty: Janitors confined as Bannu jail inmates manage to break free

Employees accuse authorities of discrimination, violation of labour laws.


Zulfiqar Ali November 17, 2014

DI KHAN: One of the four central prisons of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Central Prison Bannu employs 13 janitors (Class IV employees).

While high-profile criminals can break free as witnessed in the brazen jailbreak of April 2012, there is no escape for the poor maintenance staff which is forced to work all week long.

All the subjects of the alleged ‘bonded labour’ at the government facility belong to religious minorities. “We not only work the entire week, but whenever someone takes a day off, the absentee’s salary is deducted,” Najaf Kumar, a janitor at the prison, told The Express Tribune.

Kumar tied the knot around seven months back. “The thought of feeding my family worries me,” he added.



Vijay Kumar, another janitor, receives a salary of Rs15,000 per month with which he feeds seven mouths. He lives with his parents, four siblings and a wife in a quarter comprising two rooms in Mohallah Hussainabad, Bannu city. Talking of the alleged violations of labour laws, the 27-year-old said he was informed that the deputy superintendent is going to transfer him to Lakki Marwat internment centre. “How I will possibly look after my kin then?” he lamented.

What pay day?

Patras Masih, a Christian janitor at the prison, said he has not been paid for the past seven months. “They are doing this to me because I raised a voice against the injustices,” he said, adding that several other of his colleagues have also not been paid.

“My mother is ill and I have to run around from one government hospital to another. My savings are drained plus my salary has been stopped,” Masih said.

“There are other Class IV employees at the facility too. They have holidays and are paid on time. Our requests go unheeded and we are not treated the same as others,” said Masih, citing the faith of the janitors as the reason behind the discrimination.

Crying foul

“We demand a judicial enquiry in the matter or else we will take to the streets,” said All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement Chairman Haroon Sarabdiyal.

Haroon said that minorities live lives of third-grade citizens, adding that the PTI government and K-P IGP do not bat an eye towards the plight of minorities settled in Bannu for years.

Bannu Jail’s superintendent Sahibzada Shah Jehan could not be reached despite several attempts to contact him.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2014.

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