HARIPUR, Jan 13: As many as 152 pro-Taliban fighters, who had fought against US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, have been shifted to Haripur jail during the last few days, sources told Dawn here on Saturday.

All the new inmates were reportedly lodged in the ATC cell and juvenile prisoners had been transferred to the TB cell from there owing to shortage of space.

The sources said, 54 of the detainees were Afghans presumably caught by the Pakistani border forces while sneaking into this side of Durrand Line. They had been kept in Peshawar Jail before shifting here.

They said that 96 of the prisoners had been nabbed in the border areas after the surrender of Mazar-i-Sharif by the fleeing Taliban and were charged under sec 40 of the Frontier’s Crime Regulations. The FBI and Pakistani intelligence agencies had sent them to Haripur Central Prison known as the second biggest jail of the country, after interrogations.

All the new entrants excluding 54 Afghans in Haripur Jail had been trained by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and had the membership of Jaish-i-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen, Harkatul Jehad-i-Islami and other Jihadi outfits, the sources said. They belonged to the NWFP’s western districts, agencies, Hazara Division, Multan, Toba Tak Singh and Sindh.

A local activist of a Jihadi outfit criticized the attitude of jail authorities and termed it indifferent towards the newly-shifted prisoners.  

He accused the jail superintendent of not issuing warm cloths and blankets to the inmates who were injured and needed help.