Prison Police on Monday conducted an emergency exercise at the Central Jail, in view of threats forwarded by intelligence agencies.
The Prisons Deputy Inspector General Abdul Majeed Siddiqui told reporters that the drill was carried out by some 300 personnel of the district police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary.
“We can’t rule out a terrorist attacks because among its inmates, this jail has 2 convicts sentenced for the death of US journalist Daniel Pearl, so as you can see we’ve got a lot on our hands,” he said.
The DIG, however expressed confidence regarding the security arrangements at the prison, saying that the security setup there was not like the one at the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Jail, so security was in safe hands.
“The prison police are equipped with automatic weapons like SMG’s and LMG’s,” he said.
During the exercise jail sirens were activated for several minutes which created a panic among the inmates who were caught unawares.
According to Jail Superintendent Younus Maseeh, the prison is currently housing up to 2,000 inmates including both the under trial and convicted prisoners, some of whom are there due to serious and heinous crimes.
