Central Jail operation : ‘Probe needed against corrupt jail superintendents’

Prison collapse was feared which warranted the operation: DPO.

HYDERABAD:

Defending the central jail operation before a judicial inquiry commission on Saturday, DPO Pir Farid Jan Sarhandi appealed for inquiries against jail superintendents during whose tenure weapons and banned items were transferred to inmates. Seven prisoners were killed and 36 others, including nine policemen, were hurt in the police operation on March 15.

“A prison collapse was feared so we had to conduct the operation,” said the DPO while talking to the media after giving his statement to the commission a day earlier at the Districts and Sessions Court.

The commission, headed by District and Sessions Judge, Hyderabad, Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui, has been formed on the orders of the Sindh High Court to investigate the Central Jail operation.

DPO Sarhandi told the press that the jail police had lost its writ inside the prison and despite repeated letters written to jail officials by the Supreme Court for proper facilities and maintenance of discipline, no headway was made. “The prison was filled with prohibited material and weapons were at the inmates’ disposal.” In 2008, a prisoner was shot dead in the jail by another convict with a gun, he added.

Sarhandi termed the demands of the prisoners - who resorted to protest by mounting over the rooftops of their barracks before the search operation began - “unjustified”. They took jail police officials hostage and when prison authorities called the district police for assistance, they opened fire at the police team. “Two of my men sustained bullet injuries, whose medical certificates I have submitted before the commission,” he said.

He had appealed to the judicial commission to begin investigations against jail superintendents whose “connivance” allowed the supply of illegal weapons and other material inside.

However, the legal fraternity seem to be unhappy with the commission’s proceedings as they want the bar to be involved in the proceedings.

“The bar is a stakeholder,” said Nisar Durrani, the newly elected president of the District Bar Association, Hyderabad (HDBA). He told The Express Tribune that the bar had been kept oblivious of the proceedings as they were not served notice for assistance before the probe began.

Durrani emphasised the need to engage advocates who could cross-examine witnesses. “I will call upon the judicial commission’s head on Monday to submit a plea for the bar’s office-bearers to be included,” he said.

Supporting Durrani’s stance, Noorul Haq Qureshi, the former HDBA president, said, “by virtue of the Sindh High Court’s notice, the bar’s office-bearer is supposed to be included as a member”.

“For veracity, cross examination is essential and policemen who have already recorded their statements should be called again,” he asserted.

On Friday, 12 policemen who were part of the operation recorded their statement before the commission. Meanwhile, relatives of those prisoners killed or injured blame the police for the loss of lives.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.