Sialkot jail shootout case: Ex-Superintendent asked about contraband in jail

LHC judge asks if inmates were supplied drugs, guns and prostitutes.

LAHORE:

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu of the Lahore High Court questioned the former superintendent of Sialkot District Jail about the supply of drugs and women inmates as prostitutes to prisoners by jail officials on Wednesday.

Justice Sidhu was hearing appeals against the acquittal of five police officers in the Sialkot District Jail shootout case of July 25, 2003, in which four civil judges and five prisoners who had taken them hostage were killed.

Questioning then jail superintendent Sikandar Hayat, the judge said that the appellants – family members of the killed judges   had submitted that weapons were made available to prisoners with the connivance of the superintendent. He asked if drugs were supplied in the jail and women prisoners for prostitution.

Hayat said that some drugs were smuggled into the jail by lower staff, but the authorities had been trying to stop this. He denied that women prisoners were supplied as prostitutes.

The judge said there were several cases of women prisoners getting pregnant. Hayat said only one such incident had occurred in Sialkot District Jail, when a woman prisoner was admitted to a hospital and her husband met her there.

Aftab Bajwa, Hayat’s counsel, said that there were several cases of women prisoners getting pregnant. He said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had become pregnant while her husband President Asif Ali Zardari was in jail.

The judge remarked that prisoners were even let out of jail for bribes of hundreds of thousands of rupees. He adjourned further proceedings for Thursday (today).

The appellants have challenged the acquittals of Hayat, former Gujranwala DIG Malik Iqbal, DIG Javed Saleemi and former Sialkot DPO Raja Munawwar in 2006. Then-assistant superintendent Raja Mushtaq and warder Hafeez were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

On the day of the incident, armed prisoners serving jail terms for kidnap and robbery took several judges hostage at about 11am as they visited the women’s barracks for a monthly inspection. Police commandoes raided the jail some seven hours later to free the captives. Additional District and Sessions Judge Sagheer Anwar and Civil Judges Shahid Muneer Ranjha and Asif Mumtaz Cheema died at the scene, while Judge Shehryar Bukhari later died of bullet wounds. Judge Sibtain Kazmi was injured.

Prisoners-cum-captors Ejaz alias Jaji, Muneer alias Muneeri, Shehbaz, Ishaq and Rafeeq were also killed.

DCO summoned over meeting at women’s shelter

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday summoned the Lahore district coordination officer (DCO) for April 9 after a woman living at a darul amaan told the judge that she had met a man there.

Visitors are allowed at the darul amaan only with the permission of the courts.

Petitioner Abdul Majid, a resident of Narowal, submitted that he had married Musarrat Bibi on August 19, 2008, after which some men kidnapped her and sold her to a man named Javed for Rs125,000.

He said Musarrat had escaped Javed and fled to the darul amaan, a government shelter for women. He asked the court to direct the darul amaan authorities to let her go home with him.

Musarrat appeared in court and told the judge that the petitioner was not her husband. She said she had been living in the shelter for two years and had first met Mahjid there three months ago.

The judge expressed concern over the meeting and summoned Amina Butt, the darul amaan superintendent. She denied that they had met at the daurl amaan. Musarrat had only been conveyed a message from Majid, she said.

The judge was unsatisfied with the answer and summoned the DCO.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2012.