A number of prohibited items were recovered from inmates at the Toba Tek Singh district jail on Tuesday during a search operation.
Talking to The Express Tribune on Tuesday, the Prisons Department spokesperson said that the decision was taken after a death-row convict at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore was injured by some of his fellow inmates on Friday.
He said Toba Tek Singh district jail warders had recovered mobile phones, narcotics and paper and wire cutters from several inmates.
Regional DIG (Prisons) Mirza Shahid Saleem has issued a strict warning to the jail superintendent to check the inmates regularly, he said.
The Prisons Department had issued the instructions to officials on Monday directing them to launch a thorough search of all the jails in the Punjab.
According to a Prisons Department spokesperson, intelligence agencies had reported that some prisoners were in possession of sharp-edge weapons and that that could result in an untoward incident. The inspector general of police had been requested to provide Elite Force training to designated jail warders to enable them to deal with an emergency.
As many as 200 warders would be imparted Elite Force training in the first phase, the spokesperson had said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2013.