MULTAN/KHANEWAL, March 3 Nine officials of the district jail were suspended from service on Monday after the escape of five 'hardened criminals'.

Initially seven inmates had tried the jailbreak, but two of them were captured by the jail staff within minutes of their escape. Among the fugitives is the alleged killer of a union council nazim from Khanewal. The case has hit the newspaper headlines because of the alleged involvement of a former minister and a tehsil nazim.

The prisoners who escaped were identified as Sajjad alias Sajju of Daudana, Khanewal, Nazeer Ahmad Bhatti of Kabirwala, Altaf Husain of Haveli Koranga, Mukhtar Husain from Burewala, Ghulam Shabeer of Faisalabad and Dost Muhammad of Jalalpur, Shorkot.

Their seventh accomplice, Muhmmad Rafique of Bangalwala Qadirpuran, could not scale the wall and fell down during the process. His fall alerted the jail staff who arrested him and immediately launched a hunt which resulted in the capture of Nazeer Ahmad from the adjoining Kotla Waris Shah graveyard.

DIG prisons (south Punjab) Mian Farooq Nazir told Dawn that the seven prisoners came out of the ward 7 by breaking the toilet wall at 230am on Monday and scaled the jail wall to escape.

He said nine jail staff on duty had been suspended from service for negligence. They included jail superintendent Malik Murtaza Shamim, deputy superintendent Arshad Warraich, assistant superintendent Farhan Naqvi, assistant superintendent Muhammad Arshad, head warden Muhammad Iqbal, head warden Ghafoor, warden Akhtar and main wall patrol officer Rahmatullah.

He said several police teams had been detailed to arrest the accused. He said the police were investigating the arrested prisoners to know how they got a pistol in their barrack.

Meanwhile, Sadar police registered an FIR against the accused prisoners and seven jail staff, including Shahjahan, Rahmatullah, Muhammad Iqbal, Zakaullah, Muhammad Afzal, Qamar Abbas and Sallahuddin, under sections 223, 224 and 7ATA.

NAZIM'S MURDER A brother of the slain union council nazim claimed that a former minister of state and a tehsil nazim were behind the escape of alleged killers (of his brother) from the Multan district jail.

Sajjad alias Sajju and Nazir Ahmad Bhatti were among those nominated in the murder of Darkhana UC Nazim Mehr Khizer Tauru during the local body bolls on Oct 3, 2005.

Besides Sajju and Bhatti, slain nazim's brother Mehr Muhammad Akram had also nominated in the FIR former minister and MNA-elect from NA-122 (Kabirwala) Raza Hayat Hiraj and Kabirwala Tehsil Nazim Akbar Hayat Hiraj and some others.

Sarai Sadhu police had registered a case against the accused under sections 302/324, 109/24 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc) for plotting and assassinating Khizer Tauru, Mehr Akram told Dawn.

He said police had declared innocent Mr Hiraj, Akbar, Ghulam Raza, Sikandar and Rabnawaz due to the influence of Mr Hayat, who was in power at that time, and challaned the rest of the accused -- Sajjad, Nazir, Shahnawaz and Liaquat.

He said after failing to get justice, he filed a criminal petition against all the accused in the court of Khanewal Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Shabbir who would now take up the case on March 10. The judge had summoned Raza Hiraj, Akbar Hiraj and others.

Mehr Akram said he was being pressured by the accused to withdraw the case. He claimed he had already conveyed his apprehensions to the Khanewal DPO and the sessions judge about the possible escape of Sajju and Bhatti.

Police, meanwhile, conducted a number of raids in a bid to arrest Sajju. “We have arrested some women belonging to Sajjus family in a bid to find a clue to the culprit,” Kabirwala DSP Malik Muhammad Yousuf said.

He Sajju was a hardened criminal who was involved in six murder cases, including Khizer Tauru's. He said Multan police had already arrested Nazir Bhatti and another accused from Multan.

Kabirwala Tehsil Nazim Akbar Hayat Hiraj said he and his brother, Raza Hiraj, had been framed in the case because of a political rivalry.

Mehar Akram claimed that his brother was slain after he refused to support the Hirajs during the local body elections.