LAHORE, Oct 5: The police investigation team has declared the July 25 Sialkot Jail police operation as ‘premature’, accusing former Gujranwala DIG Malik Iqbal of committing an offence under Section 319 of the PPC (killing by negligence) on a legal advice from the “quarters concerned”.

The probe, conducted by Kasur DPO Ghulam Muhammad Kalyar under the supervision

of Sheikhupura DIG Tariq Saleem Dogar, held some of the jail staff directly responsible for the incident in which four judges were killed and three injured. The jail staff were charge-sheeted under Section 302 of the PPC.

The police team findings were submitted to the anti-terrorism court, Gujranwala, a couple of days ago.

The police had started the operation to free seven judges taken hostage by five prisoners convicted of kidnapping for ransom. The hostage-takers were also killed as a result of the operation.

Led by Sialkot District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Zafar Hussain, a team of nine judges and two judicial magistrates had visited the jail for routine monthly inspection.

It was attacked by five prisoners — Ejaz alias Jaji, Muneer alias Muneeri, Shahbaz, Ishaq and Rafeeq.

The D&SJ and three others managed to escape while the remaining judges locked themselves inside a nearby barrack of women prisoners where they were taken hostage by the assailants who scaled into the barrack.

According to sources in Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot, the investigation team termed police operation premature, as the captors had not harmed the hostages nor they gave any deadline.

It said the operation was risky and there was no chance of survival of the hostages nor was there any possibility of the escape of the hostage-takers.

According to it, the prisoners who were awarded 25 years of rigorous imprisonment in a case of abduction for ransom and were awaiting decision in another case of similar nature, knew the visit by the judges before hand.

They managed to smuggle hand-guns and ammunition inside the jail with the connivance of the jail staff which were concealed in fruit and vegetable baskets, the team found out.

It declared that immediately after the beginning of the hostage drama at around 11am, the Sialkot SSP and other officials reached the spot. They were followed by the Gujranwala DIG, Gujrat SSP and Elite Force personnel. Acting Prisons IG Sarfraz Mufti reached there after 3pm and conducted negotiations with the hostage-takers which were sabotaged by some of the jail staff, the team alleged.

It said the prisoners, using the cell phone of a judge, had also contacted inspector Zulfikar Virk who had interrogated them after their arrest some times ago. The probe team also held him responsible for the incident.

The investigation team found that the police started the operation by lobbing teargas shells after which the prisoners killed three judges — Asif Mumtaz Cheema, Muneer Ranjha and Sagheer Anwar. Judge Sheharyar Bukhari was injured as a result of police firing, the investigation team claimed. Mr Bukhari later died in a Lahore hospital.

The investigation team said the Lahore High Court had, during the holdup, directed that no operation should be carried out. And if at all it was inevitable, it should be carried out by the army commandos.

It was learnt from sources that the top officials of the Elite Force had also declared the operation premature.

According to them, the captors could have been overpowered after allowing them to walk to the main gate of the jail to board a 72-seater bus which they had demanded to escape.

As the bus could not have been driven into the jail, around half-a-Furlong distance between it and the women prisoners’barrack could have been a better place to pounce upon the prisoners, the sources claimed.