RAWALPINDI, April 3: Many of the prisoners who went on hunger strike in Adiala Jail over the weekend ended their protest on Monday evening after talks with Punjab’s Inspector General of Prisons Sarfraz Ahmed Mufti but some persisted in the protest.

“Hunger strike was continuing when I reached here. But they called their protest off after I held two-hour long friendly discussions with the protesting prisoners,” IG Mufti told Dawn. Their demands related entirely to law courts, he said. “They were convinced (of that) after I assured them that their demands would be sent to the concerned authorities”.

Asked about the fate of the prisoners who clashed with the jail staff on Sunday and mistreated Deputy Superintendent Malik Safdar, the IG prisons said the prisoners who had dragged the official inside their barrack and torn his clothes “admitted their mistake and apologised”.

However, other official sources said that after putting down the rioting, the jail authorities picked up some 130 prisoners as “trouble makers”, handcuffed and shackled them, and shifted them to a separate barrack late Sunday night.

They were unshackled after the IG Prisons arrived to calm down the situation. The sources said the officer promised the agitated prisoners he would convey their demands to the higher authorities who had rushed him to handle the crisis in the Adiala Jail.

Earlier, the IG Prisons had sent the DIG Headquarters Abdul Sattar Aajiz on that mission which the higher authorities did not consider sufficient and which did not succeed anyway.