Prison riot: Two groups clash in Adiala jail

‘Failure to massage’ influential inmate gets prisoners thrashed

RAWALPINDI: A clash broke out between two groups of under-trial prisoners in Adiala jail, leading to a prisoner getting his ear cut off before jail officials were able to confine the trouble makers in separate cells.

Inmates loyal to an influential under-trial prisoner allegedly thrashed five men for not paying tribute to Imtiaz Ali alias Taji Khokhar.

A source with knowledge of the incident in the jail said the five men were thrashed after they refused to “pay regards and offering their services to Khokhar, who is charged with the murder of a woman in 2013”.

The injured men were later identified as Tariq Masih, Shehzad Masih, Qabal Leal, Arslan Haider, and Sohail Ahmed.

The clash between Khokhar’s group and Tariq Masih’s group apparently occurred after Khokhar summoned some prisoners to his cell and took offence to the fact that they did not pay him regard and provide him with massage services. After Tariq Masih and his friends refused to bow to the threat, sources said Khokhar ordered his men to thrash the prisoners.

“More than 50 of Taji’s men pounced on prisoners and tortured them,” the sources said.

They added that Khokhar’s men slashed the ears of Tariq Masih with a steel cutter and caused an injury to his head by hitting him with a blunt weapon.

A source identified a few of Khokhar’s men as Farhan Babar, Sherazur Rehman, Hamid Iqbal and Umer Babar, adding that they were involved in disfiguring four of the other inmates with blunt weapons.

The injured prisoners were moved to the jail’s medical facility, where their condition is said to be critical because of a dearth of state-of-the-art medical facilities.

Adiala Jail Superintendent Saeedullah Gondal, however, said that a scuffle occurred between under-trial prisoners over a minor issue and prisoners from both sides were confined in separate cells. Gondal added that none of them were Khokhar’s men.

He said that the inmates who fought were all suspects in different theft and robbery cases.

An investigation into the incident is under way and a report would be sent to a sessions judge at the earliest, the superintendent added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2017.