Symbolic photo.
Dhaka: More than 2700 prisoners from India’s neighboring country escaped from jail. Of these, about 700 prisoners have not returned after several months. Due to this, the jail administration has lost sleep. The fleeing prisoners include dreaded terrorists and vicious criminals. This incident is from Bangladesh.
How did the prisoners run
A shocking revelation has come to light about Bangladesh’s prison system. The country’s top jail official has said that about 2,700 prisoners escaped from various jails during the extensive protests and violence against the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2024, out of which around 700 prisoners have not yet been caught. This information was given by Bangladesh Inspector General of Jail (IG Prison) Brigadier General Syed Muthar Hussain on Tuesday.
Many dreaded terrorists included among those who escaped
Hussain said that many of the absconding prisoners are considered very dangerous. These include criminals who were sentenced to death by the court. Apart from this, many Islamic terrorists are also among these absconding prisoners. Talking to the government news agency BSS, he said, “There are at least nine Islamic terrorists among these 700 absconding prisoners. There are 69 criminals who were either sentenced to death or sentenced to life imprisonment.”
Search for prisoners continues
The case came to light when security system was in collapsed in several jails amidst protests and political instability in July last year. Taking advantage of this disorder, thousands of prisoners escaped from jail. This situation raises serious questions on Bangladesh’s internal security and jail system. About seven months ago, Lieutenant General (retired) Jahangir Alam Chaudhary, an advisor to the Ministry of Home Affairs, also confirmed the same figure, saying that hundreds of prisoners are still outside the jail and efforts are on to catch them. However, the jail department claims that there were many of the fleeing prisoners whose punishments were almost fulfilled and they voluntarily returned, as they did not want to increase their punishment due to the crime of escape.
Government took this step
After this entire incident, the interim government of Bangladesh has started taking steps towards jail reform. Brigadier Hussain said that the government has now decided that now the jails of the country will be called ‘Reform Center’, and the ‘Jail Department’ will be renamed as ‘Correction Services Bangladesh’. He said that this change is part of the process of comprehensive improvement and modernization in the gel system. Under the new proposed law, provisions have been made to establish Artificial Intelligence (AI) based CCTV cameras in jails, use body cameras for security staff and to make security arrangements more tight around gel premises. Through these technical measures, the government wants to strengthen the monitoring system in jails so that such incidents do not happen again. (Language)
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