KARACHI: The Sindh police booked officials of Karachi’s central prison on Monday on charges of aiding and abetting the escape of two high-profile militants.

The officials have been booked under the antiterrorism law for failing to implement the prison’s rules and regulations.

They face several charges, ranging from aiding the under-trial escapees to giving false information.

In a recent operation carried out in the prison, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) recovered illegal mobile phones, television sets, internet and anti-jamming devices, drugs and millions of rupees, officials said. The operation was conducted after two militants of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) escaped from the central prison in June in one of the most daredevil acts.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police has registered an FIR (145/2017) under Sections 119 (public servant concealing design to commit offence which is his duty to prevent), 130 (aiding escape of, rescuing or harbouring such prisoner), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), and 222 (intentional omission to apprehend on the part of public servant bound to apprehend person under sentence or lawfully committed) of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, additional inspector general of the CTD, confirmed that an FIR has been registered, and told Dawn on Monday that this was the first time that a case has been registered on the basis of a search operation in the prison.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2017