G-B Assembly: Legislators demand arrest of escaped prisoners

PPP MPA says a fugitive called and threatened to kill him.

GILGIT:

Legislators in the Gilgit – Baltistan (G-B) Assembly said prisoners who recently escaped from jail must be arrested because they are a security threat for the region.

At Tuesday’s session, Raziuddin Rizvi from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) told the house that Shakirullah Jan, a fugitive, who escaped from jail last year, called him from an undisclosed location and threatened to kill him. “He rang on my cell phone from an unknown number.”

Jan, a resident of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was facing trial in an Anti-Terrorism Court in Gilgit for the murder of Agha Ziauddin Rizvi in January 2005. The assassination of the eminent cleric had led to the killing of 20 people in the days that followed.

Shakirullah Jan along with another inmate, Arifuddin, had escaped from jail in December 2012 after intoxicating the security personnel on duty.



Similarly Naveed Hussain, a resident of Gilgit, who was sentenced to death for murdering Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Jamshed Khan and two other people in Gilgit, escaped from a Skardu jail and crossed over the boundary wall. He had been shifted to Skardu from Gilgit over security concerns.

The debate was joined by independent lawmaker Didar Ali and JUI-F legislator Sarwar Shah, asking the speaker to take notice as to why the escaped fugitives have not been caught. “There are inmates who broke from Astore and Skardu jail as well. They should all be arrested,” said Shah.



Taking note of the issue, speaker of the legislative assembly, Wazir Baig, said law enforcement agencies were not performing their duties effectively, which has resulted in the escape of these high-profile prisoners.

“Do not think that we do not know anything. We are aware of what is going on in the administration. We want to see all those prisoners back behind bars immediately,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2013.