Hit by violence, jails to get modern weapons

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 3

Following a number of violent incidents and deaths in jails in the recent past, the state has, for the first time, equipped jail guards with tear-gas shells and rubber bullets to control the violent mob. Besides, the department will soon receive the delivery of automatic 340 INSAS rifles and 71 pistols (9 mm) to replace the World War-II vintage .303 rifles.

Besides, Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has proposed recruiting tall and well-built youths, especially those who do regular gym and look like bouncers, for controlling gangsters and mob violence in jails as happened in Ludhiana Central Jail recently.

Randhawa said he would discuss the proposal to hire more than 400 youths for jail security with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in an emergency meeting on Thursday. Randhawa said he was proposing to employ tall and muscular youths on the lines of the Special Operation Group of the Punjab Police.

The Chief Minister has called the meeting to discuss the recent jail incidents and plug loopholes in the functioning, if any. Randhawa wants that the state should give employment to Punjab youths instead of paying hefty money to paramilitary forces, who are being deployed in some jails. He said the state would be paying Rs 24 crore to the CRPF for manning three jails in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Bathinda.

The department has started distributing 200 rubber bullets and an equal number of tear-gas shells in various jails for mob control. This has been done after inmates went on a rampage in Ludhiana jail over the death of an inmate in a hospital. In police firing, another inmate died.

The police have supplied this ammunition to the department as an immediate requirement. Randhawa said more may such ammunition which does not result in fatal injuries would be procured, if needed. He insisted that these would be used in unavoidable circumstances only.

What triggered move

• June 28: Violence in Ludhiana Central Jail, one inmate dies in police firing. Eleven others, including six cops and five inmates, sustain injuries. Twenty-two inmates booked.
• June 22: Two inmates kill key accused in sacrilege incidents Mohinder Pal Bittu with an iron rod in New Nabha Jail.
• May 31: 4 booked for attacking two inmates in Amritsar jail.