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LAHORE: At least twelve under-trial prisoners escaped from the district court of Lahore’s Model Town on Monday after a clash broke out between two groups, police officials said.
Talking to journalists after the incident, Lahore SSP (Operations) Mustansar Feroze said that a total of 166 prisoners from two prisons arrested in various cases were brought to the district courts in Lahore’s Model Town for hearings.
He said the suspects were being kept in the “bakhshi khana” — the lock-up for under-trial prisoners — of the court when a fight started between two groups.
The prisoners broke wooden and steel chairs inside the lockup to make sticks out of them. Later, police opened the gate of the bakshi khana after they heard voices emanating from inside the lockup.
TV footage showed prisoners throwing bricks and furniture from inside the lock-up and some of them climbing over the chairs to flee as police personnel watched helplessly. A police official was injured after one prisoner pelted a stone at him.
People involved in theft, robbery, and drug dealing are among the escapees, the SSP operations said. Feroze added that they had managed to re-arrest two of the fleeing prisoners, and efforts were being made to apprehend the others.
Two investigations teams have been constituted to probe the officials’ negligence in the matter, which will be led by SSP operations, with the police officials saying that the duty officer — who is an inspector — and 12 other officers, who were responsible for their security were not in their positions.
“We hope to arrest the maximum number of these prisoners today,” SSP Feroze said. Responding to a question, he acknowledged that the police officers on duty should have responded to the situation appropriately.
