LARKANA: The Saturday evening deadline given by the Larkana Central Prison authorities to agitating inmates for their peaceful return to their barracks was closing in but many inmates, who have been holding a protest since Wednesday over a plan to move many of them to other jails in the province, were still resisting police orders, reports from inside suggested on Saturday.

The inmates had climbed up to the rooftop and torched bedsheets on Thursday over the plan. Thirteen ‘dangerous’ prisoners were shifted on Thursday during an operation carried out on the pretext of cleansing barracks of prohibited articles. Another nine such prisoners were shifted till Saturday evening, senior superintendent of the prison Ashfaq Kalwar told Dawn.

While the jail police were getting tougher against the agitating inmates, some prisoners sent videos to the media through WhatsApp accusing the jail administration of denying health and food facilities to inmates as per the jail manual. The situation was turning worse for us, they said, and appealed to the judiciary to take notice of the “excesses”. The jail administration was planning to undertake necessary repair work of barracks but also wanted to shed the prison’s population first, sources said. It would take two-three months to complete the process, after which the shifted prisoners would be brought back, they added.

Meanwhile, the jail authority registered two cases against 25 prisoners on Friday and Saturday on behalf of state at the Waleed police station. The jail superintendent said that the cases were registered on the charges of violence, duty assault and contempt of court. Some inmates had also refused to go to courts for the hearing of their cases, it was learnt.

On Saturday evening, negotiations between the jail officials and prisoners’ representatives were under way. “Our subordinates are engaged in talks with the inmates,” the jail chief confirmed, and expressed the hope for a peaceful end to the rioting.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022