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Gurdaspur, In what officials term one of the most daring jailbreak attempts in recent times, nearly a hundred inmates almost breached the outer periphery wall of the the Gurdaspur central jail facing Litter village, forcing the authorities to deploy 4,000 policemen in an attempt to frustrate their designs.
Jailbreak bid: Gangsters use gas cylinder threat to divert authorities’ attention
Senior officers, including ADGP (Prisons) Rohit Chowdhury, ADGP (law and order) Hardeep Dhillon and IG (border) Naunihal Singh, camped inside the premises throughout the night.
The volatile situation was finally defused after a grim battle between irate prisoners and security forces that lasted several hours.
Prisoners, irked over the alleged high handedness of jail superintendent DS Saini, ransacked the room where gardening tools of the jail staff were lying and made their way to the outer wall to the west of the compound.
Nearly a hundred inmates used the tools to make a hole in the wall, enough to let one man out at a time, before being blinded by tear gas shells.
Before bursting, these shells made a noise akin to gun shots which made residents of nearby colonies panicky with many of them even leaving their homes for safer places.
The ‘internet’ threat was used to keep the marauding cops at bay for hours together. Whenever the police used to go inside the compound, gangsters would curtly tell them that “their activities would be captured on the mobile and uploaded on the internet.”
Following these threats, the policemen would beat a hasty retreat.
No official had a clue from where these mobile phones were smuggled inside. Hardened criminal Jagtar Singh Jagga was in possession of one such phone before it was snatched away.
Later, Jagga, along with some of his accomplices, was shifted to undisclosed destinations in a midnight exercise.
The first siren went off around 10 pm after the prisoners ganged up and raised slogans against the Jail Superintendent. At the same time, the first tear gas shell was lobbed near a group of inmates in an attempt to create a fear psychosis. However, the ploy failed as angry prisoners came out of their barracks en-masse into the compound.
The mobile phone jammer became the first casualty. The langar (food stocks) hall was ransacked and so was the jail staff tool room. It was a virtual free for all for the inmates with the cops remaining mute spectators.
The situation was so volatile that officers were forced to requisition forces from neighbouring police districts of Tarn Taran, Batala, Amritsar and Pathankot.
Rumours started floating around midnight that some officials had been taken hostage. However, these were quickly scotched by senior officers.
Around 2 am, the entire campus had been converted into one massive battle ground as prisoners managed to reach the western outer wall. Using tools, including spades and those used for gardening, a hole was slowly carved out. Sensing that it would be a huge embarrassment even if a single man escaped, the authorities lobbed several tear gas shells following which the inmates retreated.
Residents of nearby colonies complained of uneasiness and itching in their eyes as the gas infiltrated into their homes.
Meanwhile, policemen from all the police districts falling in the Border range had started reaching the premises. By 5 am, the haze had cleared and the prisoners went back to their barracks and cells but not before denting the confidence of the authorities.
“Many questions about jail safety will have to be answered by the jail staff in the next few days. Many heads will roll. What happened in the last 24 hours has been unprecedented,” said a senior officer.
