LAHORE, Jan 29: The Punjab government decided on Saturday to make Multan DIG Malik Muhammad Iqbal and Gujrat DPO Raja Munawwar officers on special duty.

They and the other accused in the Sialkot Jail firing incident had fled after the cancellation of their interim bails by the Lahore High Court on Jan 26.

Another accused police officer, the then Sialkot DPO Amjad Javed Saleemi, whose services were earlier handed over to the Balochistan government, has already been made an OSD.

Official sources said the decision to remove the Multan DIG and the Gujrat DPO had been taken by the chief minister. They would be made OSDs after a formal notification probably on Sunday, they said.

The sources said they were not aware whether the accused police officers would be arrested or not.

They also expressed ignorance about the fate of Dr Firdaus Shah and Dr Sajid Husain of Sialkot who had also fled after the cancellation of their interim bails along with the police officers.

The officials are accused of killing four civil judges in a shoot out between police and some prisoners in the Sialkot Jail on July 25, 2003. The prisoners had taken the judges hostages when they were inspecting the jail.

The judges included Asif Mumtaz Cheema, Shahid Munir Ranjha, Saghir Anwar and Sheharyar Bukhari.

The Punjab government has already given a financial assistance of Rs3 million each to the families of the killed judges. Of this, Rs1 million each has been given to the families in cash while the remaining to the Lahore High Court for providing them residential facilities.

Meanwhile, the government has issued a notification to name Phalia's Government Secondary School, Dhol Ranjha, as the Munir Shaheed School, and decided to provide jobs to the heirs of the killed judges.