LAHORE: Two inmates were discovered making calls to dignitaries from the Central Jail in Faisalabad.
After getting intelligence inputs that some strange and unusual calls were coming from a barrack, a special team from the Punjab Prisons Department stormed the Central Jail of Faisalabad and found the callers. Two DIGs from the department led a team that conducted a thorough search, isolated two prisoners, and took possession of the cell phones they had been using to call prominent Faisalabad figures.
The jail’s chief executive officer and deputy chief executive officer were fired as a result of the incident.
The raiding teams that were sent from Lahore to Faisalabad on Monday were led by Salik Jillal and Naveed Rauf, DIGs for the Punjab Prisons.
Given the sensitivity of the situation, the Punjab government’s top officials had instructed Inspector General of Prisons Mian Farooq Nazir to keep the “operation highly secret.”
Launch of a special effort to identify callers
The teams combed through all the barracks, cells, and areas of the facility while using the most up-to-date technology, including specialized scanners.
According to a reliable source, the experts were startled to discover that the inmates were using mobile phones to bypass the jammers put in place by the administration to prevent unauthorized calls from the jail. He said that the higher authorities learned about the suspects’ beating of the jammers before making calls from the raiding teams through the Punjab Home Department.
According to the official source, when they discovered the suspicious calls that were “not ordinary in nature,” some agencies allegedly sent information to the Punjab administration. The use of mobile phones by inmates in Punjab jails has typically been criticized every now and then as they communicate with their relatives and other associated persons outside the institutions. But according to the source, this specific occurrence has spurred the Punjab administration to mobilize a high-profile team from Lahore for a unique targeted operation.
According to an official source, WhatsApp was used for the calls, and the Punjab prisons administration submitted the detainees’ cell phones for forensic testing to broaden the scope of the probe.
According to the source’s original account, it appeared that the criminals called prominent dignitaries in Faisalabad either for extortion or other illegal purposes. He added that both of the inmates were serving life sentences that had been given to them in separate murder cases around three years prior and that they were housed in the same barrack.
The Punjab prisons authorities sent them to “punishment cells” shortly after the operation and forbade them from attending any meetings of any type until the conclusion of the probe.
The director general of Punjab Prisons, Mian Farooq Nazir, confirmed the “targeted operation” in the Faisalabad jail and said that a thorough report had been forwarded to the home department for review by the top officials in Punjab. As the matter was still being investigated, he said it would not be acceptable to disclose additional information about the operation. But the Faisalabad police had been asked to file charges against the two convicts who used cell phones while inside the barracks.
According to Mr. Nazir, Mansoor Akhtar (BPS-18), the superintendent of the Faisalabad Central Jail, and deputy superintendent Ataur Rehman have been suspended for 90 days due to allegations of inefficiency, neglect, and misbehavior.
When the special teams discovered that the convicts were using cell phones from the jail, the policemen were found guilty of the charges.
He stated that the inmates who made the questionable calls had been “isolated” in the special cells as punishment and that additional inquiries were being done.
