Prisoners wounded as roof collapses at Karachi's Central Jail

KARACHI: At least two prisoners including Gulzar Ahmed reportedly wounded as the roof of a captives’ barrack collapsed at Karachi Central Jail, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The incident took place at Security Ward No 1 of the Central Jail where high-profile prisoners were kept.

Jail sources said that at least captives have received injuries when the roof suddenly fell down which were immediately shifted to hospital.

However, no details were disclosed so far regarding the reasons behind roof collapse and identification of the injured persons.

Official statement of the incident is due to the jail authorities.

Central Jail is Karachi one of the two jails in the metropolis declared the most overcrowded among the 25 prisons across the Sindh province.

Provincial Minister for Prisons, Syed Nasir Shah, had apprised the Sindh Assembly that the Karachi central prison has an existing capacity of 2,400 while its total population stood at 4,846 as per statistics given to the Sindh Assembly in November last year.

It had emerged that the central prison was overpopulated by 2,446 inmates.

Moreover, the prisoners jailed in Malir district prison was overpopulated by 3,449 which has capacity of 1,800.

The overcrowded situation persists despite the Sindh government had shifted many ‘high-profile’ inmates from the Central Jail Karachi to other districts of province and Rawalpindi over advise of intelligence and law enforcement agencies citing security concerns.

The provincial minister had reasoned that the overcrowding was caused following the rising crime rate in the society and non-availability of district-wise prisons. He had demanded to construct a six district-wise prisons for the metropolis.