Sialkot jail shooting: 'Drug abuse, prostitution rife in jails'

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu was hearing appeals against acquittal of police officers in 2003 Sialkot jail shootout.

LAHORE: Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu of the Lahore High Court, taking notice of the irregularities in jails on Wednesday, remarked that not only opium, hashish, heroin and other drugs are being supplied in jails but inmate women are also supplied for prostitution with the connivance of jails authorities.

Justice Sidhu was holding proceedings of appeals against the acquittal of police officers in a shootout in Sialkot District Jail on July 25, 2003 where three civil judges and five prisoners were killed and two judges were injured.

Justice Sidhu questioned then-superintendent of Sialkot jail Sikandar Hayat regarding the supply of drugs and women being sent as prostitutes at the behest of the higher-ups.

Hayat told the judge that drugs in low quantity are supplied in the jail with the connivance of the lower staff but the authorities have been trying to abolish this practice.

As Hayat denied the supply of imprisoned women as prostitutes, the judge said there are several cases when female inmates got pregnant. At this, Hayat said that only one incident happened in Sialkot jail when a prisoner woman was admitted to a hospital and her husband had been meeting her at the hospital, not in jail.

The judge remarked that by giving bribe of hundreds of thousands of rupees, the prisoners go out of jail illegally.

The hearing was adjourned till Thursday for further arguments of the appellants.

The appellants have challenged the acquittal of Hayat, former Gujranwala Range DIG Malik Iqbal, DIG Javed Saleemi and former DPO Sialkot Raja Munawir. They were acquitted in the case in 2006. Then-assistant superintendent jail Raja Mushtaq and Warder Hafeez were sentenced.

According to details, serving jail terms in various cases of kidnapping for ransom and robbery, the armed prisoners had taken the judges hostage when they were visiting the jail on their monthly judicial inspection. The prisoners wanted their freedom in return of release of the judges.

The judges who died in the shootout included additional district and sessions judge Sagheer Anwar and civil judges Shahid Muneer Ranjha and Asif Mumtaz Cheema. Two other judges Sheharyar Bukhari and Sibtain Kazmi were critically injured.

The judges were taken hostage at about 11am when they went to the jail to visit barracks housing women prisoners. The hostage episode lasted for nearly seven hours, with police raiding the jail at 5.30pm.

Five prisoners-cum-captors including Ejaz alias Jaji, Muneer alias Muneeri, Shehbaz, Ishaq and Rafeeq also died in the shootout.