Jail authorities inform police of freed inmates

Over 2,400 booked for violating Section 144 during lockdown

LAHORE: Jail authorities have written a letter to the police to ensure that prisoners released to avoid the spread of coronavirus are quarantined.

The Lahore District Jail superintendent said in the letter sent on Wednesday that the Lahore High Court had ordered that the prisoners should be kept isolated in their homes for two weeks.

The letter also carried a list of those released on March 30 and asked Lahore police to consider further necessary action. The move comes after an inmate in Lahore tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, to ensure enforcement of Section 144 under the ongoing partial lockdown, Lahore police operations wing claimed to have checked as many as 69,373 people at 229 pickets. Of them, 62,215 persons were told to go back to their homes and barred form unnecessary travel.



An official said 1,265 first information reports (FIRs) were registered and 2,425 people arrested over violation of Section 144. The persons nominated in FIRs were released after meeting the requirements under the standard operating procedures, including taking warranty bonds from them about not moving unnecessarily in the city again. The deputy inspector general of police operations said during a meeting that as many as 55,857 motorcycles and other vehicles were contained from movement in the city.

Lahore police initiated legal proceedings against 230 shops and restaurants for violating the preventive restrictions.

DIG Operations Rai Babar Saeed visited several pickets to review arrangements made for checking the citizens as well as precautionary measures taken by the police personnel deployed there.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2020.