TIMERGARA, Sept 26: More than 500 inmates of the Timergara District Prison continued their protest on Friday against what they said delay in hearing of their cases due to the prevailing law and order situation in Swat and lawyers’ movement.

Their leaders told Dawn by cellphone from inside the jail that they had prepared a demand list which would be presented to the provincial government through some ‘responsible’ people, adding that their strike would continue till their demands were met.

The inmates, according to sources, remained outside their barracks during Thursday night and Friday. They wore black armbands and refused to go back into their barracks when the district government tried to persuade them.

The protesting prisoners said people making dialogues with them had no powers and on Saturday night they had clearly told them they could not meet their demands.

Maulana Mohammad Khalid, chief of the Shura (council) formed by the prisoners, told this correspondent that they had been contacting the provincial government for five or six months but the government seemed not interested in resolving genuine problems of the inmates.

“We have sent a list of our demands to the provincial government regarding the judicial system and its failure to decide minor cases within a reasonable timeframe. We will be peaceful for some days but if the authorities failed to meet our demands then we will intensify our protest,” he said.

The inmates said most of them were in jail for minor cases and they should have been freed but due to delaying of hearings they were languishing in the prison for a long time.

The prisoners had refused to go back into their barracks after breaking fast on Thursday.