LARKANA: Prisoners came out of their barracks at Larkana central prison and held vociferous protest in the wake of a search operation for mobile phones and other prohibited items launched by jail administration early on Thursday morning.

Jail authorities called additional police force and Rangers personnel who surrounded the prison while Larkana SSP Masood Ahmed Bangash himself negotiated with the protesters to defuse the situation.

A number of video clips that came out of the jail and went viral on social media showed the prisoners agitating and making speeches against jail officials.

They accused the jail authorities of allowing them in the first place to have mobile phones, which they used to contact their families, said sources, adding the prisoners also talked about other excesses.

When the protest grew louder, jail police lobbed a few tear gear gas shells at the prisoners and also fired in the air, according to videos of the protest.

A jail source disclosed that it was basically the issue of recovering mobile phones from prisoners that sparked the protest.

The prisoners were heard in videos complaining about poor quality of food and insulting, inhuman treatment being meted out to inmates and they were also seen appealing to higher authorities to intervene in jail affairs to improve their plight.

To defuse the situation, jail superintendent Anwer Mustafa immediately convened a meeting with SSP Bangash and other officers in the jail in which PPP MPA Burhan Khan Chandio and Barrister Kazim Abbasi, brother of GDA MPA Moazzam Abbasi also participated, said sources.

The prisoners were also protesting against unannounced shifting of certain prisoners to other jails, said the sources privy to the issue.

The issue was later resolved peacefully when jail authorities decided to defer the search operation and the shifting of inmates to other prisons.

SSP Bangash, who negotiated with the protesting prisoners, said that the prisoners were agitating only over the issue of recovering mobile phones and nothing else.

He admitted that jail police did lob a few tear gas shells but clarified that no one was hurt in action. After the matter was resolved the prisoners went back into their barracks and so far no case against the agitators had been registered with the police station concerned, he said.

The jail superintendent and PPP MPA Burhan Khan Chandio were unavailable for comment.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2021