KARACHI, June 18: Nearly 450 cellphones and drugs were seized from inmates during a search operation inside the Karachi central prison on Tuesday, said a senior official.
However, there was no official word about the identity of the inmates found using cellphones in prison.
The official said that the routine operation was in line with the orders of the authorities and the apex court to check the inmates, including convicted members of banned outfits.
“We started it in the first half of the day and the operation is still on [after the sunset],” said deputy jailer Nazeer Shah. “We will continue it till late hours until the search of every prisoner. So far, we have recovered 449 cellphones, 450 batteries of cellphone and 39 chargers. About two kilograms of hashish was also seized in the operation.”
The fresh raid inside the central prison came as a reminder of the Feb 2011 operation that yielded only 20 cellphones and drugs.
The authorities did not mention any key reason to carry out the recent operation, but it happened following comments by Sindh High Court Chief Justice Mushir Alam who had said that convicts on death row were operating their networks in the city.
Talking to journalists during his visit to the anti-terrorism courts earlier this month, the CJ had said that the convicts involved in heinous crimes, including murders, were operating their networks in the city from prisons. He had had said that it was the responsibility of the government to implement the death sentences of the convicts, who were handed down capital punishments by courts.
“Today’s operation was a routine exercise. The search operation yielded major success as we managed to recover a big quantity of cellphones from the inmates,” said the deputy superintendent of the central prison.
He said that during the operation the inmates possessing cellphones and drugs had been identified and they would be punished in line with the defined rules.
“There are almost 4,700 prisoners in this jail alone,” he said. “So this kind of operation is always hectic and is an hours-long exercise and one can’t say with confidence whether it has ended with 100 per cent success. But we keep doing it every few weeks. All items recovered from the prisoners were later disposed of.”