From bad to worse: Reconstruction crowds already congested Peshawar jail

PESHAWAR:

Ongoing reconstruction activities at Central Prison Peshawar have worsened the already miserable living conditions at the facility, forcing prisoners to share an already cramped space with more inmates.

Sources told The Express Tribune the prison is being reconstructed in phases at an estimated cost of Rs1.408 billion and so far Rs27.446 million has been spent during the first phase of this fiscal year.

“Completely demolishing the entire building and reconstructing it was not possible as there was no other building where all prisoners could be shifted so it was decided to carry out the work in phases,” said an official of the jail while talking to The Express Tribune.

Cramped up convicts

Central Prison Peshawar is the second largest jail in the province after Haripur Central Prison and was constructed by the British Indian government with an authorised accommodation of 450 prisoners. At present, it houses 1,702 inmates of which 1,288 are under trial, 406 are convicted of various crimes and eight prisoners have been condemned to death by various courts.

“We are satisfied with security arrangements and the pace of construction as one portion of the jail has already been demolished and is being reconstructed.

However, the biggest challenge for us is overcrowding,” said the official, adding that the problem was not going to be solved in the near future and inmates would have to be confined to smaller places till all construction phases were complete.

“The prison had already exceeded the number of prisoners it could hold even before the construction as we were accommodating four times more convicts than the given capacity, but what is happening now is unprecedented,” he argued.

Sluggish progress

Following audacious attacks on the Bannu prison on April 14, 2012, and DI Khan on July 29, 2013, the provincial government announced the construction of a maximum security prison for high-profile inmates, as well as beefing up security at existing prisons.

During an official meeting in April this year, Adviser to Chief Minister on Prisons Malik Qasim Khan Khattak expressed dissatisfaction over delays in construction of the three new prisons as well as security enhancement at existing facilities across the province.

At the same meeting, an official wishing anonymity had said, “The four biggest prisons of the province are overcrowded and the process [of making news ones] needs to be completed as soon as possible, but at this pace it will not happen by June 30, 2014, the stipulated time.”

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has four central jails, the other three being located in Haripur, DI Khan and Bannu, in addition to 10 district jails, four sub-jails and as many judicial lock ups.

Not your average criminal

According to a government official, of at least 250 militants estimated to be detained at Central Prison Peshawar, 48 are considered extremely dangerous due of their affiliation with various factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The rest belong to the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam that operates out of Khyber Agency.

However, the most high-profile prisoners there are Dr Shakil Afridi – accused of aiding the US hunt down of Osama bin Laden – and Sufi Muhammad, leader of the defunct Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi.

In January this year, several prisoners received minor injuries after a clash between two groups of inmates at the prison over an unknown disagreement.

The high-profile prisoners are reportedly kept isolated from the rest of the prisoners for fear of attacks on them or a planned breakout from the premises.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2014.