July 05, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 19, 1428

GUJRANWALA, July 4: Dozens of prisoners broke windowpanes of a judicial lockup and injured some policemen on Wednesday when jail officials refused to accept them without warrants.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Ghulam Farid of judicial guards escorted some 60 prisoners to the Central Jail in a van. At the jail, warrant officer Nisar Ahmad refused to accept the prisoners because the ASI had not their warrants with him.

Farid tried to convince the warrant officer for one hour to accept the prisoners, but to no avail. Later, Farid brought the prisoners back to a judicial lockup at the sessions court.

Two prisoners fainted owing to suffocation on their way back to the judicial lockup. This infuriated the prisoners and they started raising slogans against police and jail officials. They also hurled pieces of broken glass at police officials, injuring some policemen and a journalist.

The in-charge of the judicial guards said the jail officials had been teasing them for the last few days.

Jail Superintendent Sikander Hayat said he had directed jail officials to cooperate with the police and appointed a deputy superintendent to receive prisoners.