Police unearth jailbreak plan of 400 inmates

Prison staff says cells are grossly overcrowded.

ISLAMABAD:

The Sindh Police claim to have unearthed a brazen jailbreak plan by around 400 convicts at the Hyderabad Central Jail, states an official report submitted to the human rights ministry.

“The inmates might escape from the prison any time now,” said the prison’s superintendent Pir Shabbir Ahmed Jan, who compiled the report. Sindh’s inspector general and Hyderabad’s district police officer have been asked to prevent the fiasco, he added.

Staff members at the prison said overcrowding might be one of the main reasons. They said nine or ten inmates were currently confined in the 8 by 10-feet cells which are suitable for only a couple of prisoners.

The report alleged that some influential criminals in incarceration were backed by political parties. It added that around a 100 prisoners who were given death sentences and another 600 imprisoned for life refused to appear before the courts and misbehaved with judges conducting their trials. It also said that the judges were avoiding hearings due to this misdemeanor of the inmates.

The report alleges that inmates invite women inside the prison at odd hours on the pretext of interviews. They have also established a network to procure and sell contrabands such as liquor and cannabis.

Superintendent Jan said: “We have informed senior officials. Hopefully, they can take some measures to prevent the untoward action.”

According to him, the prison has not conducted a search for illegal items in the past few years. Some inmates also possess arms and use them to threaten authorities. He attributed this deplorable condition to the huge influx of prisoners beyond its accommodation capacity.

Sindh Police have also submitted a report to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights in response to an incident last year in which seven prisoners died and 40 others were injured along with a policeman in a protest in the same jail.

Hyderabad’s DIG police, Samiullah, stressing on jail reforms said “I have also given my recommendations to the Supreme Court.”

The standing committee’s chairperson Riaz Fatyana said the provincial government has been directed to take notice of the deteriorating situation. “A paradigm shift is needed to revamp the police system and introduce jails reforms.”

Session Judge Fahim Siddiqi, who visited the jail last year, wrote in his report that there are over 1,300 inmates in the said prison. Besides the presence of contraband items, an earlier search had also recovered around 260 mobile phones from the possession of prisoners.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2012.