Given the earlier threats to blow up jails and news of attacking convoys while transferring prisoners, it is not hard for the jail officers to believe that the killings took place to intimidate them.
“They [militant groups] simply want to scare us by unleashing a series of attacks,” said Malir Jail Superintendent Nazeer Hussain while talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday.
His subordinate, Abbasi, used to be at the Hyderabad jail and was posted at the Malir jail seven months ago. “Abbasi and Sarhandi had no enmity with anyone,” he said. “They were both dedicated to their work.”
Hussain complained that despite threats, there was no security provided to the men.
An official of the Central Jail, Aurangzeb Kango, also said that they had received threats of deadly attacks.
“No one was particularly pointed out but we all knew that our lives are in danger,” he said.
As precautionary measures, officers are reluctant to leave the vicinity of the prisons without reason. Most of them live at the staff colony of the Karachi Central Jail.
The bodies of the two officers were sent to their hometowns on Sunday after the funeral prayers. Sarhandi’s body has been sent to Shikarpur and Abbasi to Sehwan Sharif. An FIR has been registered at the Gulshan Police Station against unknown persons. SHO Rana Haseeb said that the two men were on the way to Malir when they were gunned down by two assailants on a motorcycle. The attackers used 9mm pistols.
Mourning
To observe two days of mourning, jails across Sindh will remain closed.
They will open on Tuesday. During the closure, no visitors will be allowed and no prisoners will be presented in courts.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2012.
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