KARACHI: The Sindh government has shifted some 90 “high-profile” inmates from the Central Prison Karachi to jails in other districts of the province and Rawalpindi on advice of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, an official confirmed to Dawn on Tuesday.

The key report about illegal activities of the inmates inside the prison came from the Counter-Terrorism Department, which recommended their shifting from the central prison to other such facilities in Sindh and Punjab to “break an organised network”. The move came after a series of meetings on the issue of jails’ security, the official added.

“The process began in July 2017,” he said. “The high-profile militants belonging to banned outfits, both under trial as well as those serving their terms, were shifted from Karachi Central Prison to jails in other parts of the province. So far 90 have been moved and under the plan some 270 would face the same fate. More inmates would be transferred to other jails in phases.”

The move is meant to break an ‘organised network’ and improve prison security

Of the 90 prisoners, he said, two had been moved to a prison in Rawalpindi, eight to Larkana and 80 to Sukkur jail.

The proposal to shift the inmates, he said, was forwarded by the intelligence and security authorities for different reasons and in the initial phases, militants of banned outfits were shifted away from the central prison.

“The jail in Karachi is overcrowded and obviously that causes many other problems. The shifting [of militants] is part of the several measures we have taken for security and good administration,” said the official.

In June 2017 two “high-profile militants” of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) allegedly involved in over 60 murders had escaped from the Central Prison Karachi. Within a couple of weeks after their escape, the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, conducted a search operation inside the prison where they were assisted by the Pakistan army, intelligence agencies and police.

In the sweeping operation, the paramilitary force claimed to have seized hundreds of mobile phones, dozens of TV sets and over Rs3.5 million. The security agencies during the exercise also found an active mobile phone network in the prison which was being run with the help of modern devices to avoid mobile phone jammers.

The Rangers led the operation — the first of its kind in the past 25 years — that resulted in the recovery of the items not allowed under the jail manual and included physical search of around 6,000 prisoners belonging to all political, religious and banned outfits in different barracks.

After three months of the prisoners’ escape the Sindh police booked officials of the central prison on charges of abetting the escape of the two high-profile militants. The officials have been booked under the antiterrorism law for failing to implement the prison’s rules. They face several charges, ranging from aiding the undertrial escapees to giving false information.

Apart from “breaking criminals’ network”, the official said the move to shift the high-profile militants was also part of an exercise to improve jails’ security. It also included the deployment of more security men in and around the prison and the Rangers-led search operation.

“The key issue in managing jails is overcrowding. As it leads to several other issues, it must be addressed at the earliest. You can’t get better results in the long term with temporary and short-term moves,” he added.

The two jails in Karachi are reported to be the most overcrowded of the 25 prisons of Sindh. They house inmates nearly three times their capacity. A recent report prepared by the prisons department said that the Karachi Central Prison, the second-oldest jail after Hyderabad’s, housed 6,174 prisoners while its authorised capacity was around 2,400 inmates.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2017