SUKKUR, Feb 8: The Sindh government has taken a serious notice of rioting by prisoners in the Sukkur Central Jail-I on Tuesday and suspended the DIGP, prisons, Sukkur, Ghulam Hussain Khoso.

Sources said Sindh Home Minister had given Khairpur jail superintendent Abdul Majeed Siddiqui the additional charge of the DIGP, prisons, Sukkur.

However, when contacted on telephone, the Sukkur prisons chief denied that he had been suspended, saying he had been transferred to the Police Training Centre, Hyderabad, as principal.

He claimed that his transfer was not linked with Tuesday’s incident.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Sukkur Central Jail-I returned to normalcy on Wednesday following Tuesday’s rioting by prisoners when they took five officials hostage and tried to break the jail.

The hostages were released and the prisoners went back to their barracks after they were assured by the district nazim that their just demands would be met.

Sources said the prisoners had accused jailer Ishaq Meo of keeping more than 500 prisoners in the band ward and demanding Rs10,000 from a prisoner for releasing him from the band ward.

They said that on Wednesday, more than 1,200 prisoners had come out of their barracks and managed to release 300 of 500 prisoners from the band ward.

However, on Thursday, all prisoners of the band ward were shifted to common barracks.