Tighten up the security: Jail authorities want to clear residential area around city prison

The proposal comes shortly after the Rangers discovered a tunnel being dug towards Karachi Central Jail.

KARACHI:

A month after the Rangers foiled a jailbreak plan, the authorities of Central Prison Karachi have proposed that the provincial government seal the residential areas around the jail premises, shifting the residents elsewhere.

Jail superintendent Kazi Nazeer Ahmed told The Express Tribune that they have suggested that the government clear the area behind the prison. "Until and unless that area is vacated, the prison cannot be secured," he said. "It can be merged with the jail itself."

Prisons IG Nusrat Mangan has also written a letter to the government, which has yet to take a decision on the matter. The suggestion comes after the Rangers thwarted a terrorist plan to break into the prison in October. They uncovered a tunnel being dug from a house in Ghausia Colony that was only 10 metres short of reaching the jail, which counts around 100 militants among its 5,500 inmates. "At least 100 feet of land should be cleared for security purposes," Ahmed asserted, adding that no high-rise buildings should be allowed to be constructed here.



Near Watchtower Six, police officers stood guard over the house where the tunnel was found. "We have no orders to remove anyone from this area," claimed an officer.

The house, located just behind the 30-foot Aslam Shaheed Road, running alongside the prison, has been razed. Concrete blocks covered the opening of the now-sealed tunnel. Jail officials claim that it was a deep, well-engineered tunnel. In the narrow lanes of Ghausia Colony, security has already been tightened. Barriers blocked the way at the end of every lane and a secondary wall has been erected next to the jail's boundary wall.

In Ghausia Colony, and especially on Aslam Shaheed Road, grave faces greeted the news. Grocer Farhan Shakoor has lived here for three decades, raising his children and now his grandchildren in the neighbourhood.

"There is no way we will let the government take our land," he said adamantly. "We will never believe any promises of resettlement or compensation because they do not fulfil their promises. We will not move out of the area."

An employee of a car showroom asserted that they will go to court and obtain a stay order if the government decided to evict them. "See this showroom? It has been here since the 1970s," he said, pointing to another shop. "This is an old neighbourhood, and our businesses are all here. We will protest at every level if they try to move us."

Sitting on a charpoy outside her house, Amina expressed similar sentiments. "It is the jail that they should move from here. Will they make thousands of people abandon their homes for a couple of prisoners?"

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2014.