Editorial

Unchecked cellphone use

One wonders what kind of jammers are installed at the Adiala Jail which fail to jam mobile calls.

Editorial July 07, 2014

The daredevil assaults on Bannu and DI Khan prisons in 2012 and 2013 are indelibly tattooed in the minds of our people. In both incidents of jailbreak, terrorists had got some 600 prisoners freed, including high-profile comrades-in-arm. The Bannu attack was thought to be engineered to get Adnan Rashid out, the man on death row over his attempt to assassinate General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf. Reports suggest that this former PAF recruit had free access to a mobile phone through which he made contacts to his mates outside the jail. The phone could very well have been used to coordinate the brazen assault.

Still, the authorities seem scarcely to have learnt a lesson from that episode. A glaring proof is the rampant use of mobile phones inside Rawalpindi’s famous Adiala Jail. A news report in this paper says prison officials have failed to block the use of cellphones by inmates despite the installation of jammers. The jail houses some 5,000 prisoners, including 70 terrorists. Like Adnan Rashid, most inmates have access to cellphones and make calls to family and friends without let or hindrance. According to a senior official, more than 3,000 calls were made by prisoners using mobile phones in April this year. This clearly represents a major security threat. The gravity of the situation can be fathomed when one considers who occupies space in the penitentiary. The dangerous felons lodged in the facility include Bhara Kahu suicide attack masterminds, those suspected of involvement in Mumbai attacks, Benazir Bhutto’s murder and POF Wah Cantt suicide attack of 2008, assault on Musharraf’s motorcade and Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. The list alone should jolt the authorities out of their stupor and prompt them to take actions.

One wonders what kind of jammers are installed at the facility which fail to jam mobile calls. If the machines are dysfunctional, it begs the question: who are responsible for securing them? They must be held to account. Besides, the jail staff allowing prisoners unrestrained phone usage in return for petty cash must be taken to task.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2014.

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