Jail inmates save 9 guards from rioters

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, March 26

Nine security personnel, including four Home Guards, who lost their way inside the prison complex during the jail riots yesterday, would have been lynched had some benevolent prisoners not  come to their aid. Showing great presence of mind, these inmates helped the guards quickly change their attire so that they were not identified by the hooligans.

The jawans, who entered the complex at 8 pm, lost their way amid firing and lobbing of tear gas shells. They were spotted by a group of hardened criminals who, carrying gardening implements, chased them. Giving the gangsters the slip, the guards hid inside a flour mill near barrack No. 9 where they were spotted by some inmates who offered them their clothes. 

The barrack ‘munshi’, a term used by the jail authorities for a prisoner with good conduct, ordered his fellow prisoners to provide the nine guards with new clothes even as he hid their uniform.

For full six hours, the jawans remained inside the chakki even as tear gas shells exploded nearby. They were shifted to safety at about 3 am. ADGP (Prisons) Rohit Chowdhury today rewarded barrack inmates with four television sets.