Daily Times

KARACHI: The investigating agencies have initiated proceedings for the scrutiny of assets belonging to the officials and personals of central jail’s prison police after the escape of two high profile prisoners of banned outfit last week, Daily Times has learnt through reliable sources.

It is being discussed that inmates in central jail have been provided with facilities of mobile phones and other devices for huge bribe from the last many years and most of the elements of the prison police have managed their postings in central jail since long ago.

An investigative officer told Daily Times on the condition of anonymity that three days ago Pakistan Rangers Sindh along with other LEAs conducted a search and sweep operation in central jail seven days after the jailbreak in which around over seven hundred mobile phones including anti jamming devices, knifes and cutters with LED TVs were recovered which were not supposed to be inside jail in any condition, it was then conceived, that jail officials were involved in minting huge money and were putting the jail security at stake.

It is pertinent to mention that after the search and sweep action the spokesperson of Pakistan Rangers Sindh said that question rises after the recovery of all the stuff obtained from barracks and from libraries and from the possession of inmates, that how was it taken inside through high security checks on gates and inspite of that the threats always indicated by intelligence agencies.

The escape of two terrorist namely Shaikh Mumtaz alias Firon and Mohammad Ahmad alias Munna on 13 June has alarmed security agencies immensely because both belonged to the most active splinter network of the banned Lashkar-e-Jangvi’s Naeem Bukhari group and their chief of Sindh region Hafiz Qasim Rasheed is also in central after his arrest in October 2012, he has confessed to over 100 incidents of sectarian and target killing on the directives of Naeem Bukhari.

Following their escape, a dozen jail officials including the Superintendent Prison Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh, Deputy superintendent Fahim Memon, assistant superintendent Abdul Rehman Shaikh were suspended and later arrested for their negligence over the incident and a case was registered against them on the written complain from DIG Prisons Ashraf Ali Nizamani to the Station House Officer of the New Town police station of District East of Karachi.

In this particular letter DIG had stated that both the under trail prisoners (UTPs) were taken to the judicial complex from their barrack but there they requested the police personal to let them go to the upper floor for collecting information about their next hearing but instead of going to the judicial staff they went to an other room and after cutting the grill they walked out from the building.

Further investigation revealed that the escaped prisoners had shaved, changed their clothes and went out side by walking through the main gate portraying themselves as laborers.

Some officials of counter terrorism department Sindh (CTW) had doubts over the investigation that was conducted by investigation officer of New Town police station as he had weakened the case against the arrested officials and personnel of the prison police which would help them to avail the bail easily.

An official of CTD has claimed that the terrorists escaped after all hands joined with each other in central jail otherwise it was not possible for them because security was very high as some high profile inmates were there and security agencies had written various letters to relevant officials to tighten the security further and that was because in 2014 Pakistan Rangers Sindh had arrested some members of banned outfit from a house located in Ghousia Colony adjacent to central jail who were digging an underground tunnel into the jail to take their comrades out, after that incident the security was further enhanced.

It is said that the escaped suspects had conducted a reconnaissance of the jail premises before attempting their escape because the way they chose to go outside was very safe and without being observed on CCTV cameras as a part of building adjacent to the Judicial Complex is under construction, now the question rises who gave them this sensitive information about of way and details of the weak security status.

After leaving the judicial complex, the convicts exited the jail via the main gate. “The staff posted at the jail’s main gate does not check the identities of people leaving the jail. They are only supposed to check the identity of people entering the jail, source claimed.

CTD investigators said that they were searching for the escaped UTPs and so far they had not gained any major clues about their whereabouts both terrorists Shaikh Mumtaz and Mohammad Ahmad alias Munna belong to Orangi town from where they were picked by an activist Naseem alias Firon and introduced them with Hafiz Qasim Rasheed as they had participated in over 50 incidents of sectarian killings and target killing of police personals and other political workers before 2013 when they were arrested by Fayyaz Khan a former officer of CTW.

They have sleeper cells in Orangi Town, Patel Para, North Karachi and offshoot links in Baluchistan because during investigations security agencies found some clues that in 2016 and 2017 some incidents of terrorism that occurred in Sehwan, Quetta and Karachi by banned TTP and banned Tanzeem-ul-Ahrar were accomplished with the assistance of LEJ therefore Hafiz Qasim Rasheed was interrogated by LEAs in central jail, source informed.

Published in Daily Times, June 22nd, 2017.