PESHAWAR: After the two jailbreaks in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan and due to similar threats in future, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to raise the “Prisons Security Force” to protect vulnerable jails. The force will be provided heavy weapons, bullet-proof jackets and other facilities to counter any major attack. It will be provided special training for which a training school will soon be established. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs Department has constituted a special committee for the formation of the special jail force. It will be headed by Inspector General Prisons Zakir Hussain Afridi while deputy secretary Akhtar Saeed Turk, Elite Training College Principal Momin Baig and Section Officer Khalid Mohammad will be its members. The committee will decide the organisational hierarchy of the force, number of guards at each post, trenches and gates, vantage points, wireless and technical staff and provision of arms and ammunition for the force.
The committee will also take decisions about the purchase of explosive and metal detectors, mine detectors, mobile phone detectors, sniffer dogs and its handlers, pop-up barricades, gas and teargas guns, anti-terror suits, bullet-proof jackets and helmets for the special jail security force.
A high security jail is under construction in Mardan where high-profile militants will be shifted from all over the province. This prison will be having its own police lines, hi-tech security through CCTV cameras and other equipment, and isolation rooms.
Apart from the jail police, contingents of police, Frontier Constabulary and Frontier Corps will also be deployed at the high security jail.
The security of the prisons all over the province has been enhanced following one of the biggest jailbreaks in the history at Dera Ismail Khan in July when around 243 prisoners, including many militants, escaped. As many as 13 persons including policemen, were killed when militants stormed the jail and escaped after freeing their men.
Last year a jailbreak happened in Bannu when over 300 prisoners were freed by the militants. There are intelligence reports of more such attemptedf jailbreaks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country to free militant commanders.
Security in and around the central prisons in Peshawar and Haripur was increased after intelligence reports that militants may attack them. After sunset, roads leading to the Peshawar Central Prison are blocked with barricades from the Governor’s House to the Rahman Baba Square on one side and Shuba Bazaar Square on the other.
Police commandos armed with machineguns and rocket launchers are deployed at various entry points to the area. A number of patrolling cars perform duty on various points near the prison, which is located midway between the old city and Peshawar Cantonment.
The jail is surrounded by the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines, Peshawar High Court, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Civil Secretariat and Governor’s House. The residences of the corps commander Peshawar and commandant of the Frontier Constabulary and the headquarters of Frontier Corps in Balahisar Fort are also located close to the Peshawar Central Prison.
Earlier, Army contingents were also deployed in and around the prisons in Peshawar and Haripur. However, presently the soldiers have been replaced by the commandos from the Elite Force.
