PESHAWAR, Aug 13: The superintendent, deputy superintendent and doctor of Central Prison Peshawar were suspended on Saturday for their alleged negligence in escape of two high-profile militant commanders while a head constable who escorted the militants to a dental hospital was arrested here on Friday.
“The government has suspended the superintendent Sahibzada Shahjehan, deputy superintendent Ajmal Khan and Dr Iftikhar and set up a four-member committee to present its investigation report within two weeks,” a source said.
Superintendent of Dera Ismail Khan Prison Khalid Abbas was transferred and posted as superintendent of Peshawar jail and Maqsood as his deputy, while the AIG prison Masoodur Rehman was given the charge of superintendent D.I. Khan jail.
Senior Member, Board of Revenue, Waqar Ayub will head the inquiry committee, including Director Reforms and Management Unit Dr Ihsanul Haq, Commissioner Peshawar Mohammad Akbar Khan and DIG Special Branch Mohammad Ashraf as its members.
A source privy to the prison staff said that they had timely informed the Peshawar police to arrange security for shifting of the militant commanders Nadeem Abbas and Zakeem Shah to the hospital, but they did not pay heed. The doctor, he said, also claimed to be innocent in the case as the time for treatment of the militants was given by the doctors of Khyber College of Dentistry.
Head constable Mohammad Ilyas, who was in-charge of the police party, which escorted the militants to the hospital, was arrested by Tehkal police and sought his seven-day remand from the court of judicial magistrate.
A police official Dawar Khan told Dawn that Ilyas was arrested under Section 109, saying that despite having permission for prison van the police had opted to take the prisoners in taxi cab, which was a sheer negligence on their part.
Mr Ilyas is also facing charges that he did not engage the attackers who killed his colleagues and got the militants freed.
Quoting the head constable, Mr Dawar said that he admitted his negligence of not taking the militants in the prison van. However, the HC claimed that for the official van he had to wait for two hours and thus he shifted them in a private taxi.
In his initial statement, the HC, Mr Ilyas, said that the militants had attacked them all of a sudden, which confused him to the extent that he could not retaliate.
Another official of the Tehkal police station said that a case against the two militants and their accomplices had been registered under Sections 302, 324, 153, 109, 7-ATA, 148, 149, 223, 224, 225 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
