Sarabjit case: No action taken against jail authorities

LAHORE: Reports about the suspension of several Pakistani jail officials after the brutal assault on Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh last week have turned out to be an eyewash as authorities are yet to take action against anyone in Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Immediately after the assault on Sarabjit by other prisoners on Friday, officials had told the media that three or four prison officials, including the assistant superintendent, had been suspended.

However, official sources told PTI that not a single official of the prison has been suspended from service so far.

The caretaker government of Punjab province has only issued notices to seven Kot Lakhpat Jail officials, including Superintendent Mohsin Rafiq and Additional Superintendents Ishtiaq Ahmed Gill and Sawar Sumera, to explain why action should not be taken against them for failing to protect Sarabjit.

To the surprise of many, an inquiry into the incident by Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Malik Mubashir pinpointed several security lapses but did not fix responsibility on any one.

Punjab's caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi and his administration have been tight-lipped about the incident and no formal statement on the assault has been issued by anyone in the provincial government.

Sethi has neither condemned the incident nor taken action against Inspector General of Prisons Farooq Nazir for failing to provide protection to Sarabjit though his lawyer Awais Sheikh had warned prison officials of threats to his life in the wake of the hanging in Delhi of Afzal Guru for his role in the 2001 terror attack on the Indian parliament.

After the hanging of Guru, jail officials had told the media that they had put in place "adequate measures" for the security of Sarabjit.

They even claimed they had shifted him to a special cell to avert any untoward incident.

The Punjab government's reluctance to launch a thorough investigation into the incident has raised many eyebrows, sources said.