High alert: Additional IG pays surprise visit to Central Jail

Additional IG Prisons visits Peshawar city jail fearing an imminent attack on facility.

DI KHAN:

With security on high alert, Additional IG Prisons for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Muhammad Ali Shah paid a surprise visit to the city’s Central Jail on Friday.

Fearing an imminent attack on the facility, DC Mushtaq Jadoon has asked K-P’s home secretary and senior military officers to help beef up security at the prison.

Security was tightened after 15 suspected militants from Kurram Agency were shifted to the prison. Notorious militant commander Qari Hayatullah is also held at the facility.

However, a police official at DI Khan Central Prison said it is common for prisoners to be transferred here from Kohat, Bannu and others areas.

In July 2013, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke into the prison and freed 230 militants incarcerated at Central Prison. Sources say 52 TTP prisoners are currently held at DI Khan.

Furthermore, officials visited the jail’s food and medical facilities as well as various construction sites.

Shah instructed the Communication and Works Department to expedite construction work so as to meet the December 2014 deadline.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.