Lack of ammunition and firing practice of jail staffers has heightened the insecurity of officials following the Bannu jail break which has sent jitters to all the jails across the province, especially those harbouring high value targets. Well-placed sources in Punjab’s Prison Department revealed to Pakistan Today on Sunday that the jail staffers deputed in field duties have not attended firing practices/courses for more than two year.
Sources also disclosed that jail staffers do not have enough ammunition to counter any terrorist attack like that which happened at the Bannu Central Jail recently. Sources while giving details said according to standing operation procedure of Jail Department, every jail staffers should have firing practice once a year but authorities at Prison Department had not taken any serious steps in this regard. Sources further said the jail staffers usually get 5 to 6 rounds to fire during any firing practice. They said though the Jails Department has also distributed some sophisticated guns including G3, Anti Riot Guns and Tear Gas Shells but the aforesaid weapons was purchased by the authorities back in 2005, in the aftermath of Sialkot incident. Sources claimed that most of the weapons had gone of out of order due to improper care and less usage. Sources while referring to tear gas shells claimed that most of them had expired because they were purchased about 7 years ago. Sources further highlighted that the jail officials had little ammunition available in jails for countering any terrorist attack and there were chances that jail staffers could not counter or stop terrorists from entering any jail premises before the arrival of concerned police and other law enforcement agencies to help.
Sources said jail official did not have vehicles to further increase proper patrolling inside and outside jail premises, adding that several jails did not have sufficient security pickets either.
INTERNAL SECURITY THREAT: Sources further said that jail staffers do not have sufficient capacity in case of any violent attack by the prisoners. They indicated that most of the jails did not have proper anti-riots kits available. They said most of the scanners, security gates, emergency alarms, walky-talky sets and intercoms were out of order and the power outages were adding to the problems of the staff.
A serving superintendent of a jail, asking not to named, not only confirmed what the sources said but also requested the authorities of Punjab government to take serious steps in resolving issues. “We were expecting that Jail Training Centre in Sahiwal would be completed in 2010 but the idea was dropped since all the money was spent on the rehabilitation of the flood victims,” Another senior jail staffer while commenting on the training said.
IG PRISON: Prison Department Inspector General Farooq Nazir, while talking to Pakistan Today, refused to accept the aforesaid situation and said a good number of guns and other ammunition were available to the jail staff. He said the same weapons were being used by the Police Department, adding that they had enough spare rounds available. He, while referring to excessive abilities of weapons and bullets said, couple of months ago they had shifted spare rounds available to one jail to another.
While discussing the security measures adopted by the jail authorities in the aftermath of terrorists attack at Bannu Central Jail, he said he himself and his four deputy inspector generals had visited important and sensitive jails. He said they had held day-long meetings with police officers in order to make fool proof security measures at and around all sensitive and other jails of the province. He said, on Sunday, they had carried out mock exercises at different jails in order to check the response of every department involved in the business. He said they were working to make all jails of province fool proof.
