HYDERABAD, Aug 14: Recent audacious attacks on the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan jails by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to free their comrades have raised fears of a similar attack on the Hyderabad central prison, which holds convict in the world-famous Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case, Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh.

High-ranking officials of the civil administration and various law-enforcement agencies recently put their heads together to discuss ways to plug loopholes in the jail’s security to preempt similar attempts by the Taliban to get Sheikh released, said sources privy to the meeting.

Senior security officials told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that the jail’s overall security was being strengthened in all respects with special focus on Sheikh. They added that they had received orders not to let the convict go — either dead or alive.

The most dangerous inmate who faced death sentence in the case “is under constant watch and is allowed only an hour’s stroll in the morning and evening and that too in handcuffs”, said a prison official.

“There is a strict ban on his interviews and his cell is changed too often for security concerns. Although he is a condemned prisoner, he is not kept in the condemned ward,“ said the official.

In 2002 all accused in the Daniel Pearl case including Sheikh, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Sheikh Adil were shifted to Hyderabad from Karachi to stand trial inside the jail.

The fifth accused in the case, Hashim, is still undergoing trial because he was arrested after the verdict was handed down to Sheikh and his co-accused on July 15, 2002.

“The number of Rangers, police and Frontier Constabulary personnel deployed inside the jail has been raised and ambulances have been called. …we have been told by high authorities to make sure if the worst happens then attackers should not succeed in taking away Sheikh either dead or alive,” said an official.

He expressed the fear the colonial-era central prison built in 1894 could not withstand bombings or firepower used by terrorists in recent attacks on jails in D.I. Khan and Bannu. “We, therefore, have become overcautious about the jail’s inside and outside security,” he said.

He proposed establishment of a separate jail for high-profile prisoners with multiple layers of security cordons.

Jail sources said that six pickets had been set up and barbed wires and mud-filled bags had been placed round the jail to serve as barriers and block unwanted movement. A Rangers’ van patrolled round the jail’s outer wall, said the sources. “We are reviewing security measures for Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur prisons,” said a senior prison official.

Karachi prisons had the most number of convicts associated with banned outfits followed by Hyderabad and Sukkur jails, he said.

Two activists of the banned Jundullah would be executed in Sukkur central prison on Aug 22 and two others would be sent to gallows on Aug 21 in Karachi prison, he said.

Sheikh’s appeal against the capital punishment is pending trial in the Sindh High Court while three convicts in the PIA plane hijacking case — Shahsawar, Sabir and Shabbir — await decision in Hyderabad central prison on mercy appeals over their capital punishment.

According to a senior prison official, Rs82 million has been released for enhancement of jails security. “We have to purchase night-vision goggles, X-ray screens, walk-through gates, teargas masks and many other security gadgets which are to be provided to each prison, depending on the kind of security each jail needs,” said an official. At a meeting held at the commissioner’s office a few days ago to review jails security, police officials pointed out some loopholes in the overall security and proposed installation of surveillance cameras, barbed wires, heavy tower lights and barriers inside the jails.

IG Prisons Nusrat Mangan also chaired a meeting recently to review security arrangements in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur jails, which discussed security measures in the three jails in view of level of threat to each prison and considered changes in the jails’ administrations.

“Some of our officials who are currently under suspension might be reinstated and transferred to the three prisons,” said an official who participated in the meeting. He said the objective behind the meeting was to check level of preparedness against possible terrorist attacks on jails.

The meeting discussed how the central prison’s inside and outside cordons should be reinforced because the jail was located in a thickly-populated area.

The prison is surrounded by Mubarak Housing Society, Sahafi Colony, Hur Camp, CIA Centre and Baldia police station and a big hotel right across the road.

“Barriers are to be installed outside the compound wall of the prison but we have not yet received any instructions in this regard,” said an official of the provincial communication and works department.