LARKANA: Police had to fire teargas shells and use force to maintain law and order after a large number of inmates climbed up to the rooftop of the Larkana Central Prison on Thursday amid persisting unrest over transfer of about a dozen prisoners to other jails in Sindh. Power supply to all barracks was discontinued to facilitate the operation.

The unrest among prisoners had been persisting for some days and it reached its peak on Wednesday when the jail authority finally managed to shift 13 ‘dangerous’ prisoners – who had long been creating troubles -- to different jails in the province.

The troublemakers were identified as Salman Jatoi, Wajid Jatoi, Abdullah Jagirani, Mohammed Ali Khokhar, Bashir aka Shabrani, Wazir aka Khaqan Kalhoro, Ali Mohammed Kalhoro, Ghulam Sarwar Jatoi, Niaz Hussain Solangi, Qaisar Zangijo, Qurban Ali Abro, Zamir Hussain Jatoi and Mohammed Pariyal Abro.

Speaking to Dawn on Thursday, senior superintendent of the central prison Ashfaq Kalwar described the 13 inmates as “ringleaders” of different groups of prisoners. Their shifting was being strongly resisted by these groups, he said, adding that the pretext of “cleaning of jail” had to be used to execute the transfer plan.

Teargas shells used to control unruly prisoners

However, he said, the shifting triggered a protest by a large number of in­m­­ates who started disobeying the police and on Thursday they refused to ‘giv­e total’ (declined to go back to their barracks) after doing their assigned jobs.

When the situation grew tense, the electricity supply to all barracks was cut off, he said. Unruly inmates climbed up to the rooftop disregarding orders of the jail police to maintain law and order.

According to sources, police lobbed teargas shells to force inmates to return to their barracks.

During the protest, Mr Kalwar said, the inmates torched their bedsheets raising slogans against jail officials over the transfer issue.

After taking the IG Prisons on board, a search operation was conducted and around 1,500 mobile phones, narcotics and other prohibited articles were seized from about 1,000 inmates, he said.

It was learnt on good authority that police teams from other district were drawn for the shifting of the 13 dangerous prisoners to other jails.

While the operation was under way late in the evening, Mr Kalwar on megaphone gave a deadline to the agitating prisoners to go back to their barracks or appear before him to choose the jail each of them wanted to be shifted to. They were warned that action would be taken across the board within 24 hours, except against those who would come up with a jail of his choice.

He made it clear that those who would opt for remaining at the central prison would have to face frisking and a search of his barrack.

Taking advantage of the jail authorities’ soft attitude, around 60 prisoners approached them with willingness to be shifted from the central prison. It was encouraging, the senior jail superintendent said, adding that there were 1,050 inmates at the prison and the jail authorities wanted this population to be reduced by half. He guessed that many more would voluntarily report to be shifted to the Sukkur, Khairpur, Hyderabad or some other prison.

Mr Kalwar said that the aim of reducing inmates’ population was to facilitate the planned repair work of barracks for which funds had already been allocated.

“Things were handled strategically to get the prison cleansed from prohibited articles and cleared of dangerous inmates without risking any harm to the staff and inmates,” he said.

The senior jail official said that initially action was initiated against those staff who were found involved in wrongdoings. Over a dozen jail personnel were identified and transferred to other prisons and now 13 troublemakers from among the inmates had also been shifted to other jails. This would help maintain peace in the jail, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2022