KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday was informed that under-trial prisoner Mohammad Ajmal, alias Ajmal Pahari, was shifted from the Central Prison, Karachi, to the Sukkur jail after the approval of SHC Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar.

Ajmal was booked for his alleged involvement in a number of criminal cases, including an armed attack on the convoy of CID SP Mohammad Aslam Khan in Gizri in January 2006 that left two police officials dead.

The criminal cases against Ajmal Pahari were also transferred from courts in Karachi to the respective courts in Sukkur for adjudication, stated a reported filed by Karachi jail superintendent in a petition filed by Fouzia Hussain, wife of the accused, who approached the court against the transfer of her spouse from Karachi to Sukkur.

The jail superintendent stated in the report that the Central Prison, Karachi, housed around 5,200 inmates, with most of them being high-profile, habitual, hardened and professional criminals.

Hundreds of them either belonged to banned outfits or involved in a breakdown of law and order in Karachi.

Potential threats were received through various agencies regarding possible attack on the jail, which could endanger the lives of the inmates as well as innocent citizens living in the vicinity of the prison.

He said all the dangerous inmates were housed in the prison due to which armed assaults on the prison such as those on Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan jails in the past were anticipated.

The jail superintendent stated that in view of any such possible terrorist attack and to disperse the high-profile inmates, the Sindh government placed the matter regarding the transfer of prisoners before the SHC chief justice, who passed orders for their transfer from the central prison to the other prisons in other parts of the province along with their cases, which shall be heard in their respective courts and decided promptly.—PPI