Central jail officials guilty of aiding and abetting terrorists: CTD

An investigation by Sindh’s counterterrorism officials into the June 13 escape of two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorists from the Central Jail Karachi has found the prison officials guilty of aiding and abetting the convicts.

Counter Terrorism Department chief Addl IGP Sanaullah Abbasi told The News that considering the statements of the accused and the witnesses, the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978, the central jail’s record and environment and other relevant information received through interviews of present and former prison staff, they had arrived at the following conclusions:

In the morning of June 13, convicted prisoner Arshad Ali, who was illegally deputed to assist production clerk Yasir Ali, issued slips for producing high-profile prisoners in the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) at the central jail’s judicial complex.

He also issued a production slip for the case of Nadeem and others that was pending trial in ATC-VII, in which he included under-trial prisoner (UTP) Muhammad Ahmed, alias Munna, who was actually not required, but Arshad Ali tampered with the prison record and inserted his name.

Prison Constable Abdul Ghafoor of Security Ward No 26 received the slip and allowed them to go to the court on their own, in violation of the Jail Manual.

Ghafoor also allowed prisoner Shaikh Muhammad Mumtaz, zimmedar (responsible) of ward No 25 and 26, to accompany Munna on the pretext that he had to see his lawyer, without any legal permission. The order for permitting Mumtaz to see his lawyer was given by Rafique Channa, head clerk/hearing officer, through Prison Head Constable Nawab Ali.

Prison ASI Muhammad Farosh was deputed along with four other prison constables for production and security of hardcore prisoners inside ATCs. He was supposed to check and verify all prisoners to be produced, but Munna and Mumtaz succeeded in entering the court corridors without being checked.

Prison Constable Saeed Ahmed, deputed at ATC-VII, neither checked the production list nor pointed out that Munna and Mumtaz were not wanted by the court.

After their hearings, all the prisoners were allowed to go back to their barracks without any supervision or escort, which provided an opportunity to Munna and Mumtaz to hide in the production room of the non-operational ATC-XVIII.

Surprisingly, ASI Farosh was deputed to offer the Zuhr prayers with high-profile terrorist Shaikh Umer on a daily basis, leaving his sensitive and most important production duty at the ATCs.

On June 13, he left his duty to accompany Umer for the Zuhr prayers as usual. When he returned, the proceedings of the ATCs had ended and the prisoners had gone back to their wards without a headcount.

Four constables deployed at the ATCs, including Saeed Ahmed, did not count the number of prisoners produced and, without any verification, locked the main door of the ATCs and gave the OK report to Farosh at around 2:30pm.

Head Constable Nawab Ali Solangi, incharge amaldar deputed at Security Ward No 25 and 26, did not verify if all the prisoners from his ward produced in the ATCs were back.

The jail was locked down at about 11:30pm instead of 5pm, in violation of the prison rules. Surprisingly, the lockup register showed the time of lockdown as 7:50pm.

Even during locking down, Solangi and his two subordinates, Abdul Ghafoor and Atta Muhammad, did not do a headcount but merely relied on the OK report of the prisoners themselves. Mumtaz and Munna were missing, but no prison official seemed to take notice of this.

No senior officer, even Assistant Superintendent Naveed Ahmed Khan, incharge of Security Ward No 25 and 26, supervised the headcount or the lockdown. The OK report was sent to the tower, from where it was relayed to the prisons senior superintendent at 11:29pm.

The next morning, the jail was unlocked without any headcount or physical verification of the prisoners. Mumtaz was scheduled to be produced in an ATC the same day, but the jail authorities found out he was missing at 10am.

After informing Prisons Senior Superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh, the jail was locked down and a search for the missing prisoners carried out, but to no avail.

Shaikh then sent a detailed escape report to the Prisons IGP and the Prisons DIG for Karachi, both of whom reached the central jail to investigate.

DIG Ashraf Ali Nizamani got a criminal case registered against Shaikh, Deputy Superintendent Faheem Anwer Memon, Hearing Officer Abdul Rehman and nine other prison officials. After their arrests, a search of the prison was carried out with the help of the paramilitary Rangers on June 18.

Earlier, UTP Jamal Hussain had escaped from the Youthful Offenders Industrial School on July 28, 2013 and UTP Muhammad Hafeez from the central jail on February 15, 2016. At the time of both the incidents, Shaikh was the prisons superintendent.

No writ of law or authority seemed to exist in the central prison under Shaikh. Mumtaz was made zimmedar by Rafique Channa to run the affairs of Security Ward No 25 and 26.

Hardcore criminals and terrorists from different wards of the prison went to the ATCs without any escort or search and returned on their own as well. Neither Naveed Ahmed Khan nor any other officer ever visited the ATCs to check the security arrangements.

Abbasi pointed out that it was the responsibility of the prisons superintendent to prepare a standard operating procedure to ensure security of high-profile prisoners and terrorists for producing them in the ATCs, but no such mechanism was devised and prisoners had free access to deal with the prison registers.

He said convict Arshad Ali was allowed by Hearing Officer (Tower Incharge) Rafique Channa to work inside the court production section and he had tampered with the ATC court production diary of high-profile prisoners and terrorists.

Moreover, he added, the prison staff were insulted, misbehaved with and manhandled by high-profile prisoners, but no legal action was taken against them, which on the one hand encouraged the prisoners, and on the other hand demoralised and discouraged the staff.