FAISALABAD: Two groups of prisoners clashed inside the district jail and thrashed and injured each other.

This is the second incident of prisoners’ clash inside the jail within a month.

Reports said some of the prisoners of Barrack No 3 barged into the cell no 2 and thrashed the inmates with kicks, fists, clubs and some steal objects. Sources said the incident took place two days ago and the jail administration tried to hide it rather than probing how the prisoners stormed another barrack and thrashed inmates. The prisoners of cell no 2 reacted and beat the intruders.

Sources said the intruders were being backed by influential figures and the administration was finding it difficult to move against them. It’s the failure of the jail administration which could not bridle the unruly prisoners, they said, adding that it was the second incident of clash in the jail.

Earlier, on April 23 last, two prisoners clashed in which an under-trial prisoner identified as Abid Ali was killed by Abdul Ghani of Chak 433-GB, Samundri. The jail authorities had a case registered against the suspect three days after the incident.

The relatives of inmates in the district jail have expressed concern over violence and appealed to the Punjab government to launch a probe into the issue and appoint independent inquiry officers other than the jail department’s to determine the facts.

DIG Prisons Saeedullah Gondal was contacted with some queries on his WhatsApp and mobile phone but he did not reply.

CASE REGISTERED: Protest against alleged police torture of two persons cost many people dearly as a case was registered against them (a man and his four sons and others) on the allegation of misbehaving with police and blocking the road.

More than two dozen people threw traffic out of gear on Samundri Road for more than an hour on Tuesday night. People said they turned up on the road to protest against police as some Elite force constables had misbehaved with and tortured Waqas and his father on road and then took them to the Dijkot police station where they kept them in illegal detention. They said police did not take action against the constables who misused their authority.

Police said Waqas was stopped on suspicion and released on the intervention of the local notables. They denied torture of the suspect or his father. They said a case had been registered against Maqbool and his four sons Waqas, Waqar, Naeem and Shahbaz, besides Adnan, Javed, Ali Raza and unknown persons for blocking the road, creating problems for the motorists and misbehaving with police.

Illegal gas supply: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL)have detected an illegal gas supply line installed at a private colony in Jaranwala.

“The 2,500-foot long line has been illegally installed at the colony situated at Chak 61-RB, Bedianwala, Sheikhupura Road, with the help of a close associate of a ruling party MNA and some employees of the SNGPL,” an officer of the company said.

On a tip-off, the FIA and the SNGPL jointly raided the colony and detected a long supply line.

Sajjad Ahmed, an engineer of the SNGPL, said the colony owner did not get permission from the department for this line and inflicted a loss of millions of rupees on the national kitty. The entire line had been removed with the help of machinery, he added.

He said an application had been submitted with the FIA for registration of the case and initially names of four people had surfaced.

The FIA investigation would clear the whole picture, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2021