RAWALPINDI, April 19: Seven handcuffed under-trial prisoners involved in heinous crimes tried to commit 'mass suicide' by hitting their heads against the walls inside prisoners' van on the Islamabad district courts premises on Monday, witnesses said.

The injured prisoners were shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) amid tight security, where one of them was stated to be in critical condition. A judicial inquiry into the incident has been ordered.

According to the police, about 89 under-trial prisoners, including six women, were brought to Islamabad district court from Adiala Jail in four vans for the hearing of their cases. They were being guarded by seven police personnel, including two women constables.

Earlier, as the inmates were boarding the vans at Adiala Jail, a group of seven under-trial prisoners - Zafar Iqbal Butt, Ghulam Mohiuddin, Ahmed Wasim, Waheed Akhtar, Sajjad Pupu, Qasir Baidar and Javaid - insisted on travelling in the women's van.

"They were disallowed by the jail authorities to travel along with women prisoners and were brought to Islamabad in a separate police van (IDP-1080) with 19 other inmates.

As the van arrived at the district courts and they were about to be shifted to Bakshi Khana (temporary lockup), the seven prisoners started beating their heads against the van walls," a police official who had been guarding the van told Dawn.

The prisoners also started shouting slogans against the police and used abusive language, the witnesses and police said. "When the situation seemed to be getting out of control, we called the top police officials of the ICT as well as the magistrates.

We kept the doors of the van locked and did not allow the prisoners to disembark, fearing they might escape," said Sub Inspector Abdul Majeed, who escorted the prisoners' van to the district courts.

The van was then driven straight to the Margalla Police Station where police commandos surrounded it. The police station's gates were locked and injured prisoners were separated from others and shifted to Pims.

According to the Margalla Police station SHO, Gulfam Nasir, the injured were in stable condition and had been shifted back to the Adiala Jail after first-aid. One of the prisoners, Zafar Iqbal Butt, had suffered critical head injuries.

Zafar Iqbal had been involved in 11 robbery cases and the verdict in his case was to be announced on Monday, however it was postponed after the incident.

The police claimed that the seven prisoners had got themselves injured in an attempt to escape. After the judicial inquiry report, a case will be registered against these prisoners.

Despite repeated attempts, neither the jail superintendent nor the deputy superintendent was available for comments. Meanwhile, the fate of one prisoner who had been complaining about heart trouble inside the judicial lockup was not known till the filing of this report.

The man was among 89 other prisoners who had been brought to the Islamabad district courts from Adiala Jail on Monday for the hearing of their cases.