94 out of 216 escapees recaptured after Malir jailbreak

Following the mass jailbreak from Karachi's District Malir Jail, authorities recaptured three more escapees late Tuesday night, bringing the total number of arrested inmates to 94 out of the 216 escaped prisoners.

However, 122 prisoners still remain at large, and a search operation is underway to apprehend them, officials confirmed.

According to jail authorities, a case pertaining to the jailbreak has been registered at Shah Latif Town Police Station, where an FIR was filed by the prison's Deputy Superintendent Zulfiqar Ali Pirzada under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act. The charges listed include attempted murder, dacoity, police encounter and terrorism, among others.

The authorities have appealed to the public for assistance in locating the remaining fugitives and have ramped up coordination between law enforcement agencies to ensure their swift capture. Raids are being carried out in different parts of the city with surveillance increased at the known residences of the escaped prisoners.

Furthermore, officials have announced that inmmates who return voluntarily to the jail will be granted leniency.

Voluntary prisoner surrender

Amidst the ongoing Malir Jail escape case, one more prisoner has voluntarily turned himself in.

Asif, who was serving a sentence under Section 380 (theft), surrendered himself and upon recalling the jailbreak, he said the incident began the moment tremors from the earthquake were felt. “As soon as the earthquake struck, prisoners started coming out of their barracks,” he said. “There was no one there to stop us.”

He described how all the inmates exited through the main gate and made their way to the road outside.

Expressing remorse, Asif said, “I want to complete my sentence”. He added that he had already spent 10 months in jail and his case is still ongoing.

Earlier, a woman took her son and his friend back to the jail, one of whom was a drug addict and had reached home at 3.30am on the night of the jail break.

The woman said she gave them meal before taking them back to the jail. She was hopeful that her son would recover from drug addiction in the jail.

Read: Over 200 inmates escape from Malir Jail

CM orders probe

Meanwhile, in an emergency meeting held at the Chief Minister’s House, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah ordered a thorough investigation into the Malir Jail escape incident. He assigned Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah to oversee the probe by involving Karachi Commissioner Hassan Naqvi and Karachi Police Chief Javed Alam Odho.

Addressing the press after the meeting, Murad criticised the jail administration for failing to seek immediate assistance from local authorities and law enforcement agencies.

“There seems to have been a complete breakdown in communication and preparedness,” he said during the press conference.

He stressed that those found negligent would face consequences, “Those responsible will be held accountable”. The chief minister also instructed the home secretary to carry out a detailed security audit of all prisons across Sindh.

A robust search operation by the district and jail police and Rangers had followed the jail break, during which 90 escapees were recaptured on Tuesday.

According to the police, the jail administration evacuated the prisoners from the barracks as a precautionary measure due to the potential danger following the earthquake.

Around 3,000 prisoners gathered near the Mari Gate, causing a stampede.

The Home and Law Minister dubbed this jailbreak as “one of the largest-ever in Pak­istan".

The prisoners took advantage of the situation, broke the locks of the Mari Gate, and started escaping by jumping over the jail walls.

Read More: Inmates escape from Karachi's Malir jail after breaking wall

Jail police and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel tried to stop the prisoners by firing warning shots.

However, one prisoner snatched a kalashnikov from a police officer and started firing indiscriminately, injuring two FC personnel and one police officer.

Other prisoners also injured officials with stones and sticks and managed to escape. The intense firing caused panic in the area, and traffic on the National Highway was suspended.

The road from Quaidabad to Malir Jail was closed, resulting in long queues of vehicles between Malir Kala Board and Quaidabad.

A large contingent of District Malir police, Rangers, and FC reached the scene.

The IG and DIG prisons, Superintendent of Jail, SSP Malir, and other senior officials also reached the site.

Sindh Home Minister Zia ul Hassan Lanjar took notice of the incident and directed SSP Malir to take immediate action and arrest the escaped prisoners.

He instructed effective measures, surveillance, intelligence, and roadblocks, and ordered strict departmental action against negligent officials.

The jailbreak started late night on June 2 and continued into early morning on June 3 after hundreds of inmates, unsettled by mild tremors, were brought into the prison yard as a safety measure, Sindh Home Minister Zia ul Hasan Lanjar said while speaking to reporters at the site.

A door-to-door search was conducted in the surrounding areas.

Locals captured videos of the escaping prisoners and shared them on social media, showing some shirtless prisoners fleeing barefoot and others escaping in six-seat rickshaws.

In the initial search operation, 50 prisoners were arrested from the jail quarters, while Malir City police arrested 19 prisoners from different vehicles, and Sukhan police arrested eight others.

The police also made announcements on mosque loudspeakers to inform the public about the prisoners' descriptions. Identity cards were checked, and suspicious individuals were taken into custody for questioning.

IG Sindh Ghulam Nabi Memon also reached Malir Jail on Tuesday morning and received a briefing from the Superintendent on the situation.

IG ellaborated to reporters that most of the prisoners were jailed in narcotics cases, and several of them had psychological issues.

Murad has removed Inspector General of Prisons Qazi Nazir, suspended DIG Prisons Hassan Sehto and Malir Jail Super­intendent Arshad Hussain over the incident.

Murad termed the incident "completely unacceptable" and vowed to hold those responsible accountable, citing gross negligence by jail authorities.

Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has said announced that no strict action would be taken against prisoners who voluntarily return within 24 hours.

However, those who fail to return, will be charged under the provisions of jailbreak, which carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison.