Death-row inmate: Prisoner who bolted from Bannu jail caught

ASP says prisoner facing death sentence was working as a welder in the industrial town of Hub

QUETTA:

A prisoner who was on death row and fled during the Bannu Jailbreak in April 2012 has been arrested by Hub police in the Lasbela district of Balochistan, ASP Hub Police Zaidullah Khan told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday.

Giving the details, the ASP said that the prisoner facing death sentence was working as a welder in the industrial town of Hub. “The prisoner Rameez Raja was arrested during a raid conducted on the information of a police informer,” said Khan.

Rameez Raja, a resident of Kohat, was awarded the death sentence on July 1, 2012 on the charges of murdering his aunt.  The FIR was registered against Raja at Gombat Police Station, Kohat. He along with 400 inmates, fled from the Bannu Jail after Taliban militants stormed the jail.

“Raja said he had spent a few days in mountainous areas, and then moved to Korangi area, Karachi, where he obtained a fake NIC under the name of Aftab Ahmed,” Khan said. Raja lived in New Karachi also for a brief period before moving to the industrial town of Hub.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2015.