HYDERABAD: The colonial-era central prison of Hyderabad owes much of its present-day red zone-like security to the presence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh — acquitted in the Daniel Pearl murder case — who spent close to 13 years of his imprisonment here since May 2002. Besides Shaikh, other high-value prisoners were also kept here.

Shaikh is currently lodged in Karachi prison after he was shifted there on Dec 8, 2019. Other convicts — Sheikh Adil Saqi and Fahad Nasim — were shifted to the central prison of Karachi on June 26, 2018, while Salman Saqib was shifted to Sukkur prison on Oct 20, 2012.

Shaikh’s acquittal in the murder case reminded this reporter of his shifting from Karachi central prison to Hyderabad jail in May 2002 for an ‘inside’ trial — notified by the government — in this high-profile case. It was one of few such cases historically, including hanging of Sooriah Badshah, chief of Hurs in Sindh, in the Hyderabad conspiracy case.

It was under unprecedented security Omar Shaikh was brought from Karachi to Hyderabad on May 2, 2002. Out of professional excitement to cover his arrival here I, along with senior colleague Hamid Sheikh, somehow managed to reach the second entrance of the prison as outer gate facing City Gate Hotel was not that heavily guarded at that time.

Anticipating his arrival, the two journalists ended up sitting outside one of the staff quarters a couple of hours before he reached here around Maghrib prayers only to be noticed by then deputy superintendent of prison, Aijaz Hyder Hyderi, then deputy jail superintendent.

Hyderi used to be famously known as Indian film celebrity Nana Patekar among inmates for his typical style of dealing with inmates regardless of their criminal, militant, ethnic and nationalist background. He was gunned down on May 15, 2015 in Karachi.

Incumbent jail chief Ziaur Rehman stood next to Omar Shaikh and he was taken to maari, first internal entrance in any prison. Omar Shaikh had initially been confined in prison’s security cell in the condemned ward, which is meant for those to receive capital punishment, to ensure his and co-accused high-grade security.

Thanks to journalistic connections with the late jail official, he allowed us to sit at a safe distance from the area where the prison van was to stop. This enabled this reporter to witness a six-foot plus tall bespectacled and handcuffed man clad in shalwar kameez disembarking from the van. A convoy of over one and half dozen Rangers and police vehicles escorted him and the co-accused to Hyderabad jail.

Trial resumed here on May 3, 2002, after the Sindh High Court shifted the venue from Karachi to Hyderabad on April 25 on a plea moved by the state lawyer on April 25. Saeed Shaikh, the cool and composed bearded father of Omar Shaikh, used to accompany the counsel for his son, Abdul Wahid Katpar, on each date. He did not lose his composure even after hearing the death sentence verdict while speaking to this correspondent at a nearby hotel on July 15, 2002.

During his close to 13-year stay, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh had been a matter of concern for the prison authorities. At one point of time, a mobile phone was recovered from his cell and then Sindh home secretary Kamran Dost had confirmed it in May 2009, saying that he had conducted an inquiry, which led to suspension of jail officials. In April 2014, reports came that British-born Shaikh had tried to attempt suicide in his cell. “We kept changing his security and his cells within the prison facility,” observed an official.

From May 2, 2002 onwards, the central prison of Hyderabad had been a centre of attention for national and international media till Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, antiterrorism court judge, sentenced him to death on July 15, 2002, and handed down life imprisonment to his co-accused. Late Raja Qureshi, who became the advocate general of Sindh, was government’s prosecutor of the case. As Sindh started witnessing terrorism cases in Karachi during the Musharraf regime, more prisoners with religious background, including those involved in Corps Commander Karachi attack case, were shifted to Hyderabad central prison.

And then came April 2012 Bannu jail break, prompting the government to put elaborate security arrangements in and around the central prison of Hyderabad in the backdrop of the presence of Shaikh and other high-value inmates. The government invested heavily on prison’s security, including Rs500m, for raising bomb-proof outer boundary wall and installing mobile phone jamming devices that disrupted mobile phone services for those living in the surroundings of the prison.

The authorities fortified the prison, erecting a separate boundary wall right from the outer to first entrance. Separate passages were created for visitors.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2020