Prison Department of Punjab has requested authorities to provide police officials from Punjab police to increase security around all sensitive jails where different terrorists, criminals involved in sectarian violence and heinous crimes are kept to avoid suspected terrorist attacks, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Well-placed sources in Prison Department told Pakistan Today on Thursday that former Prison Department inspector general Kokab Nadeem Warraich had requested a security beef up in a letter to the Home Department only a couple of days before his removal and transfer. Sources said the former IG had mentioned that the he had received threats about expected attacks by terrorists on different jails in order to help their accomplices escape from the prisons hence security around all prisons be increased, adding that additional police officers from Punjab Police and security personal be added to the current force.
The jails specifically mentioned in the letter include District and Central Jail Multan, District Jail Mianwali, District and Central Jail of Faisalabad, Adyala Jail and District and Central Jail Lahore while it was also requested that security be beefed up in other jails of the province.
ELECTRICITY FAILURE: Sources furthermore said that long hours of electricity failure had also created security hazards at jails. They said the jails went completely dark during load shedding and the live wires around the boundary also become dysfunctional, creating a major security loophole. Apart from this, they said, the inmates could also start a fight in the darkness when the scanners and the security cameras were also rendered dysfunctional. They said anything, including weapons, bombs and drugs, could be smuggled inside the jail since it was not possible to check the luggage of each guest individually.
Sources said jails were provided with generators but the fuel was not enough to cater to long hours of load shedding, adding that fuel worth Rs 19 million had been allocated while the demand was of around approximately Rs 54 million. They said electricity supply usually remained suspended for about 10 to 12 per day and a 250 kv generator consumed fuel worth Rs 2,500 rupees per hour, adding that the fuel budget needed to be increased.
Sources said Lahore Central Jail and Multan are only two jails which were exempted from electricity failure.
Newly appointed IG Prison Mr Farooq Nazir, while talking about the provision of additional security force told Pakistan Today that he had taken charge only a couple of days back and was not aware of the letter, adding that even if it had been written, there was nothing wrong with it. While discussing the security hurdles created by electricity failures, he said discussions were underway with the government on exempting jails from outages. A superintendent of a jail, asking not to be named, said the government should spend the money on developing solar power system instead of on fuel for generators.
