Karachi:
Taking advantage of the chaos during an earthquake escaped at least 216 prisoners from Malir Prison Monday midnight in the middle of firing of security guards.
A robust search operation from the district and the prison police and rankers followed, where 90 escape was re -captured, while the rest is still largely.
According to police, the prison administration evacuated the prisoners of the barracks as a precautionary measure due to the potential danger after the earthquake.
Over 1,000 prisoners gathered near Mari Gate and causes a stamp. The prisoners took advantage of the situation, broke locks of the Mari gate and began to flee by skipping the prison walls.
Prison Police and Frontier Corps (FC) staff tried to stop the prisoners by shooting warning shots.
However, a prisoner caught a Kalashnikov from a police officer and began shooting unresolved and wounded two FC staff and a police officer.
Other prisoners also wounded officials with stones and sticks and managed to escape. The intense firing caused panic in the area and the traffic on the national highway was suspended.
The road from Quaidabad to Malir Prison was closed, resulting in long queues of vehicles between Malir Kala Board and Quaidabad.
A large quota of the District Malir Police, Rangers and FC reached the stage.
IG and you prisons, Superintendent of Prison, SSP Malir and other senior officials also reached the place.
Sindh Home Minister, Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar, noticed the incident and instructed SSP Malir to take immediate action and arrest the escaped prisoners.
He instructed effective measures, monitoring, intelligence and roadblocks and ordered strict departmental action against negligent officials.
A house-to-house search was done in the surrounding areas.
The locals caught videos of the escaping prisoners and shared them on social media and showed some shirtless prisoners who fled at Barfoot and others fleeing in six-seat rickshaws.
In the preliminary search operation, 50 prisoners were arrested from the prison district, while the Malir City police arrested 19 prisoners from different vehicles, and the Sukhan police arrested eight others.
Police also issued messages about mosque speakers to inform the public about the descriptions of the prisoners. Identity cards were checked and suspicious persons were taken into custody for interrogation.
Meanwhile, a woman took her son and friend back to the prison, one of whom was a drug addict and reached home at 1 p.m. 3:30 after escaping.
The woman said she gave them meal before taking them back to prison.
She hopes her son would recover from drug addiction in prison.
IG SINDH GHOLAM NABI MEMON also reached Malir Prison on Tuesday morning and received an orientation from the superintendent of the situation.
Most of the prisoners were imprisoned in drug cases, and several of them had psychological problems.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has removed the inspector of prisons and suspended you Prisons and Malir Prison Superintendent over the incident.
Shah called the incident “completely unacceptable” and promised to hold them responsible responsible with reference to gross negligence from the prison authorities.
Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has said it was announced that no strict action would be taken against prisoners who are voluntarily returning within 24 hours.
However, those who do not return will be charged in accordance with the provisions of Jailbreak, which has a prison of up to seven years in prison.
