By By Shamim Bano
An under trial prisoner (UTP) managed to escape from the premises of the Additional District and Sessions South-VI court on Tuesday. This is the sixth UTP who managed to flee from the court premises in the current year.
Nadir Ashiq was produced in the court early morning. He was booked in FIR 156/06 under sections 353 (police encounter) and 324 (attempt to murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code by the Chakiwara police station. He was said to be affiliated with the Zikri group of Lyari.
Two policemen who were escorting him have been placed under suspension and an FIR (176/09) under sections 223, 224 and 225-A has been registered against them by the City Courts police station.
Ashiq is the second UTP who escaped from the City Courts premises this month. Earlier on November 5, Amanullah Khan had escaped from the City Courts lock-up.
Two UTPs had escaped from the District East Court on October 17 during which a policeman also died in cross-firing. Abdur Rehan and Syed Jan were facing murder charges.
On January 4, two UTPs had escaped from the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Central. Mushtaq and Hafeez were booked in murder case by Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station.
Last year, seven UTPs managed to escape from the City Courts premises. All of them were said to be hardened criminals.
The City Courts lock-up In-charge Khalid said that the reason behind the increase in such incidents was the shortage of police force.
According to him, about 400-450 UTPs were being brought from the Central Prison with the police force of 130 personnel and the number of UTPs being produced in the courts has almost doubled these days.
He also blamed the newly inducted police personnel in the City Courts lock-up and said that they were untrained and unprofessional and did not know the rules and methods of managing the UTPs.
When this scribe questioned him as to why the responsible police personnel usually obtained bail and no one cared if the UTPs escaped, the official replied, “This is not enough as an inter-departmental inquiry is conducted and some of the policemen are suspended for three to four years and in some cases even dismissed as penalty.”