July 26, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1429

KARACHI, July 25: A teenage girl sitting in a public transport vehicle lost her life reportedly in crossfire when five undertrial prisoners were fleeing from the premises of the City Courts, where they had been brought for a hearing on Friday.

One of the prisoners is still on the run while the other four were later apprehended by the police.

The undertrial prisoners – Abdul Sattar alias Payra, son of Ibrahim, Abdul Samad son of Haider, Bilal son of Rasheed, Sajid son of Aslam and Zain Wahab, son of Mohammad Ahmed – were produced around 1.30pm before the court of the additional district and sessions judge-IV, South, in different cases pertaining to dacoity, possessing illegal weapons, intent to murder and shoot-outs with the police.

The UTPs managed to free themselves from handcuffs, in which they were brought from the Central Prison, and escaped from the court premises. However, the police gave chase and intercepted them on M.A. Jinnah Road and arrested Abdul Samad, Sajid and Abdul Sattar after a shoot-out.

The teenaged Samina, who was sitting in a Gul Coach at New Challi, suffered a fatal bullet wound to her head, causing instant death. A resident of Naval Colony, the deceased was going to visit her relatives on Burnes Road.

During the shoot-out, Samad sustained a bullet injury and was apprehended by the police. He has been admitted to the Civil Hospital. Bilal, who managed to flee after the shoot-out, was later arrested by the Mithadar police while Zain Wahab is still at large.

The police said that the families of the UTPs provided them weapons, reportedly two pistols, hidden in lunch-boxes.

Following the tip-off that there were more arms in the premises of the City Courts, police combed the entire premises and recovered a 9mm pistol and a hand-grenade stuffed in a bundle from the third floor. The police also recovered around 25 bullets from the lunch-boxes lying in the sessions courts south building.

SSP Saddar Dr Amir Shaikh confirmed that among the five UTPs two prisoners – Sajid and Abdul Sattar – were nephews of Arshad Pappu, an alleged gangster of Lyari.

The SSP was of the opinion that all five UTPs did not come with a premeditated escape plan from the Karachi Central Jail. He said they were separately brought to the City Courts lock-up where they were randomly chained together in a batch of five.

“As per the usual practice in the City Courts, due to the shortage of police personnel a batch of five UTPs are chained together and two policemen are assigned to the group,” an official of the jail police said, adding that there are around 130 courts in the City Courts premises while 261 policemen handle these undertrial prisoners.

The cases in which the UTPs were produced in court for are FIR no 188/07 registered under Sections 324, 353 and 186/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at Kalakot police station against Abdul Sattar Payra; FIR 12/07 registered under Section 392 of the PPC at Eidgah police station against Abdul Samad; FIR 80/06 lodged under Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance at Chakiwara police station against Bilal; FIR 15/08 under the Arms Ordinance registered at the Eidgah police against Sajid and FIR 364/06 registered under the Arms Ordinance at Darakshan police station against Zain Wahab.

The City Courts station house officer was issued a show-cause notice following the incident. Another officer pointed out that there are 15 entry/exit points into the courts premises, which are not being properly manned due to the lingering poor relations between the police and the lawyers’ community.

Police in the dock

The sources said that around 10 such incidents have taken place in the last five years and held the court and lock-up police responsible. They were of the view that police were providing mobile phones to the undertrial prisoners on a “special package” when they were brought to the City Courts.

Senior lawyer Salahuddin Gandapur told Dawn that there was no provision in the law to provide cellphones to the UTPs. “It is very difficult for an undertrial prisoner to make an escape attempt without the cooperation of the police. The other reason behind such incidents is the unprecedented delay in the cases and failure of the authorities concerned to dispense speedy justice to the prisoners,” he added.