KOHAT, Sept 26: Local authorities have shifted the prisoners of Kohat Jail to Bannu district jail for the army to set up special courts in the vacated building to try militants. A district administration official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the army took the decision after many accused militants escaped from the custody of police escorting them to trial courts.

Under the new arrangement, the under-trial militants would be shifted to the Kohat prison under the watch of Karak and Bannu police, said the official. It is for the second time in 10 years that the Kohat prison is being so used. In December 2001, too, it was vacated for FBI to hold 156 Al Qaeda militants arrested on Afghan border along Kurram Agency. Then the original inmates of the prison were shifted to Dera Ismail Khan jail.

Their interrogation continued until the middle of 2002 after which the militants were transported to Guantanamo Bay camp via Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

According to the official the latest move has not sat well with the relatives of the relocated prisoners, especially women, who complained that they would have to spend more money and time for seeing the detainees in Bannu. Relatives are allowed to visit prisoners once a week.

There were also complaints about delay in hearing the bail pleas of many under-trials. The source said the prisoners shifted to Bannu were on a hunger strike over delay in their production before Kohat courts.

The official said Bannu jail had refused to bring the shifted prisoners to the respective Kohat courts because of heightened fears of terrorist attacks, besides heavy workload.

The shifting of Kohat prisoners to Bannu and the subsequent handover of Kohat district jail to the army have already drawn the ire of local lawmakers, who declare it a badly thought-out and anti-people e move by the district administration and police.

Another official in the local administration said the army had demanded the control of Kohat and Lakki Marwat prisons and that was granted without delay. When contacted, Superintendent Kohat district prison Aitzaz Jadoon said his bosses had ordered him to vacate the jail for the army and he just complied with the orders.

He agreed that shifting the prisoners to far-flung Bannu district would distress them and their relatives but said he couldn’t do anything for them.

The superintendent said all jail staff would continue to be on duty for protection of the army and the undertrials.

He said he had no idea how long the trial of militants in the Kohat jail would last. Jadoon refused to respond to the question about the legality of the prison’s handover to the army.