Prison watch: Rangers refuse to share details of 8-hour-long operation in jail

Sources claim mastermind behind attack on Justice Baqar may have planned it from inside jail.

KARACHI:

Troops of Pakistan Rangers conducted an eight-hour-long seach operation inside Karachi Central Jail on Saturday but refused to share any details.

An official did admit, on the condition of anonymity, that the law enforcers had reason to believe that the attack on Justice Maqbool Baqar may have been planned from inside the jail. Sources revealed that the search operation was carried out primarily by Rangers personnel while jail officials were only present for assistance. A local police contingent was also deployed as a backup force.

For the first time in history, about 200 Rangers’ personnel participated in the operation that lasted at least eight hours following a tip-off about a mobile phone that was allegedly used in the assassination attempt at a senior judge of the Sindh High Court on June 26.

Earlier, senior police officials claimed that two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group members, Farhan and Azeem Shaikh, had also planned an attack on Justice Maqbool Baqar before their arrest in 2011.  Farhan was currently imprisoned at the same jail while Azeem Shaikh was released from jail in June last year.

A senior jail official, on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that Rangers officials also questioned Farhan, the former chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, and other banned outfit members in a bid to obtain possible leads for the probe. He added that a cell phone, believed to have been used in carrying out the attack on SHC judge, was also seized.

“They (Rangers) believe that the mastermind used this cell phone device to carry out the attack,” said the official. “The cell phone is believed to have been used in making contact with other terrorists and planning the execution of the attack.”

The paramilitary forces also seized several other cell phones, laptops and internet devices from the inmates’ possession during the operation. The recovered devices would be sent to experts to extract records which might help in the probe of several cases, sources revealed.

IG Prisons Nusrat Mangan said, however, that only six cell phones, a handful of knives, an mp3 player and pieces of inciteful literature were seized in what he claimed was a ‘routine’ search operation. He denied that any laptops or computers were found during the operation. He also refuted claims that a mobile phone, used to carry out the attack on Justice Baqar was found from the inmates. Malik further denied that any prisoners were being interrogated for their involvement in the bomb attack. “This was a routine search operation which is frequently carried out at the prison. The only difference in today’s operation was that we included the Rangers’ officials in it,” he said.

Rangers officials said that they conducted a joint operation with the jail police on the directives of the provincial home department. They added that the jail officials were facing shortage of staff so they had requested the home department to include Rangers. “We have recovered six cell phones,” said the Rangers spokesperson. “We have our doubts about one cell phone which is being verified but nothing can be said at the moment about its use in the attack,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2013.