Inquiry ordered into desecration incident

Prisoner accused of sacrilege moved to undisclosed location

ABBOTTABAD:

K-P Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Masoodur Rehman on Monday constituted a committee to probe the matter of a desecration incident allegedly committed by a prisoner inside the Abbottabad Jail premises.

The committee comprising the Haripur Central Jail superintendent and others visited the district jail in Abbottabad to investigate the matter.

The committee will present its findings to the K-P IG prisons within a couple of days.

It is alleged that a prisoner in Abbottabad jail was attacked on Saturday by fellow inmates for being alleged to have desecrated a holy book.

According to sources privy to the matter, the prisoner in question is a mentally-unstable person and was confined in a separate cell, from where he was taken to a psychiatric facility for a few weeks inside the prison.

His fellow inmates tried to lynch him but the jail personnel managed to protect him and shifted him to an undisclosed location.

Protesters blocked the roads and shut businesses after the news of the incident came out. The jail authorities had to deploy additional security after a mob attempted to enter the prison.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2021.