Lax security: Father, son attacked in Model Town judicial lockup

They had been brought from prison for a hearing of their case.

LAHORE:

Several prisoners attacked and injured a father and son accused of murder and assault in the Model Town courts’ judicial lockup on Tuesday.

Muhammad Munir and his son Muhammad Bashir had been brought from prison to the Model Town courts to attend their case proceedings and were put in a judicial lockup with several other prisoners.

Muhammad Saleem, Qaisar Hussain, Nazir Ahmed and Gul Sher, all accused of robbery, attacked the father-son duo with two paper cutters.

Cries for help were heard at around 11am. Several litigants and police officials rushed towards the judicial lockup.

Muhammad Amanat, one of the litigants, said the police officials did not initially enter the judicial lockup for fear of being attacked. He said that several police officials stood by for quite some time.

The assailants told police that they had had an old enmity with Munir and Bashir.



Model Town DSP Muhammad Aftab arrived at the scene and said a case had been registered against the culprits. He said that an inquiry would be conducted to find out how the prisoners had gotten hold of the paper cutters.

Several similar incidents have occurred at the Model Town courts over the past year. Prisoners have attacked each other with paper cutters, knives and blades but so far no significant measures have been taken to control such incidents.

Munir and Bashir were taken to Lahore General Hospital for treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2014.