LARKANA: Normalcy returned to the Larkana Central Prison — the scene of repeated protests and rioting for about seven months — after agitating prisoners’ demand of allowing a fellow inmate, Mohammad Ali Khokhar, back from Shikarpur jail was accepted. The jail authorities had described Khokhar as one of the 13 “dangerous” inmates shifted to some other prisons.

The prisoners freed the seven policemen they had been holding hostage since last Friday after Khokhar was taken back on an order issued by the DIG of Sukkur jail, sources said.

The senior superintendent of the Larkana prison, Ashfaq Kalwar, confirmed to Dawn that all seven policemen held hostage by inmates had been freed, ending the eight-day standoff.

Before taking the extreme action hostage-taking over the issue of Khokhar’s return, the inmates had been holding protests for almost a month over shifting of their 13 fellows, including Kho­khar, to other jails on Jan 12.

‘Dangerous’ inmate taken back to get seven policemen freed

Negotiations between the agitating prisoners and the jail authorities had been continuing since then but the latter did not bow to the pressure even after a large number of inmates climbed up to the rooftop and torched bedsheets in one of the episodes.

On Thursday evening, a local Pakistan Peoples Party leader joined the talks and got the matter settled. The inmates released five policemen — Imran Zuhrani, Murtaza Junejo, Tariq Rajpar, Shahnawaz Korkani and Daman Jagirani — on his assurance that Khokhar would be taken back. The remaining two policemen — Abdul Rasheed Golo and Abdul Waheed Golo — were set free when Kho­khar returned to the jail on the order of the DIG Sukkur jail, sources said.

The Larkana jail currently houses 946 inmates and all of them “gave the total” on Friday evening. In the jail nomenclature, “give total” means that all inmates are back to their respective barracks by sunset without offering any resistance.

Assistant superintendent of the jail Maula Bakhsh Sahito had on Thursday registered a case (FIR No.16/2022) against 47 prisoners at the Waleed police station for rioting, duty assault and holding jail officials hostage. The FIR was not withdrawn till Friday evening.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2022