February 28, 2008	Thursday	Safar 20 ,1429

FAISALABAD, Feb 27: The deputy inspector general (DIG) of police (operations) has sacked former Gulberg station house officer (SHO) and 10 other police personnel from service on charges of dereliction of duties and negligence, officials told Dawn on Wednesday.

According to sources, nine hardened under-trial prisoners had escaped from the Gulberg police station’s lockup early morning on Jan 17 when all except three police constables were out on Muharram duty.

The DIG also sacked a sub-inspector (SI) of the Gulberg police station’s investigation wing, who was initially assigned to probe into the fleeing incident but he tried to cover up and rather exonerated SHO Jamshed Chishti, who had also been involved in Sonia Naz’s notorious case, in his preliminary inquiry.

The matter, being of serious nature, was investigated afresh on the directives of the DIG and SHO Chishti and 10 others were found guilty of negligence in discharging duties diligently and were finally shown the door on Wednesday.

Saifullah, Mazhar Ali, Irfan Arshad, Sajjad Bhatti, Fateh Sheer, Aslam, Imtiaz, Naeem Yousaf and Tahir Imran were brought here from Mianwali and Sargodh jails where most of them were incarcerated for their alleged involvement in robbery cases.

As they were simultaneously being tried at Faisalabad courts as well, they were brought a night ahead of their hearing on Jan 17 and were kept at the Gulberg police station’s lock-up tentatively.

The police came to know about the incident when some officials approached the lockup next morning to escort the prisoners to courts. They found the lockup empty on which they informed their high-ups, who ordered a probe into the severe incident. The prisoners had fled by breaking the lockup’s wall. The police, however, subsequently rearrested two of the fled prisoners, Mazhar Ali and Saifullah, sources added.

Following the incident, SHO Jamsheed Chishti and three constables were immediately suspended and a probe was ordered.

During the final inquiry, Chishti and his colleagues were found guilty and exemplary punishment was recommended against them.

In pursuance of the probe findings, Operations DIG Mohammad Aslam Tareen sacked SHO Chishti, head-constable Attiqur Rehman and constables Aftab, Mohammad Javeed, Babar Ali, Ahmed Yar, Ahmed Sher, Idrees and Umer Hayyat. The investigation in-charge of Gulberg police station, SI Zahid Mehmood, who was initially assigned the task to probe into the grave incident, has also been sacked on charges of favouring SHO Chishti and exonerating him in the preliminary inquiry.

DIG Tareen told Dawn that he gave personal hearing to all the delinquent officials before condemning them.

A police spokesman, Inspector Anjum Kamal, also confirmed that Chishti and few others had been sacked from service.