SUKKUR, Aug 1: Protesting inmates of the Sukkur central jail-I on Monday night made 22 jail officials hostage. Over 1,000 prisoners of the jail refused to go back to barracks and made two jail officials hostage.
Later, jailor Ali Bux Shaikh, along with 25 staffers, went to the prisoners to hold talks with them. However, the prisoners also made 20 of them hostage. The prisoners raised slogans against jail superintendent Gulzar Ahmad Channa.
Extra police force, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel were called to bring the situation under control. However, the situation worsened as the prisoners refused to go to their barracks before acceptance of their demands. The prisoners accused the jail staff of maltreatment and said the jail authorities had not returned them goods taken from them during searches. They alleged that they were allowed to meet their relatives only after paying bribe to the staff.
Informed sources told Dawn that worst kind of lawlessness was prevailing in the jail premises. The mobile telephone of the jail superintendent and other phones of the jail were off. When this correspondent contacted prisons DIG Major Ghulam Hussain Khoso, he said he was unable to tell what exactly had happened in the jail as the jail superintendent was visiting the jail and his mobile phone was off. However, he said, the prisoners had refused to go back to barracks because there was no power supply.
TWO WOMEN KIDNAPPED: Armed men kidnapped two married women in separate incidents which occurred within the jurisdiction of Daharki police station late on Sunday night. The first incident took place in the Wajnot Village, where Bhagio Shar, along with two others, forcibly entered into the house of Ramzan Shar and kidnapped his wife Mst. Badai 40, and fled.
Ramzan Shar lodged an FIR at the Daharki police station against the three accused including Bhagio Shar, Dhani Bux and an unknown.
Police have made no headway in the matter. In another incident, which took place in the Sain Dino Malik Village, six people identified as Shaban, Khalil, Ameen, Dildar Ahmed, Mehram and Allah Dino, entered in the house of one Nazir Ahmed Mangi, and on gunpoint, kidnapped his wife Nabban, 16, and fled.
No case was registered till filing of this report.
PROTEST AGAINST POLICE: Scores of villagers belonging to the border area of Sindh and Balochistan staged a demonstration and sit-in on the Indus Highway on Monday in protest against the police.
People from Mir Hassan Rind and Jaffer Rind villages led by Ismail Mirbahar took out procession against the Bhittai colony police near Risaldar for about three hours.
The protestors were raising slogans against the police.
They told the newsmen that some two days back they captured a criminal Bhoro Marhato and handed over him to the police.
They said the criminal was involved in attacking villages and was wanted in several cases of kidnapping and robbery, but the police released him after getting gratification.
They demanded that an inquiry should be held into the matter. They asked the high police officials to provide protection to them.
DUES PAID TO WORKERS: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister, Nusrat Aziz, has distributed Rs13.6 million among 106 retired employees of the Sukkur taluka municipal administration as commutation and gratuity dues.
Cheques were given to employees who had retired from 2002 up to December 2005 at a ceremony held at the Jauhar Park here on Monday.