[Dawn] A single-member bench of the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of a police head constable set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock for conniving with Death Eaters for the escape of two undertrials and subsequent killing of three coppers.Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan also directed the provincial government to register a case against the prison and police department officials found responsible for the incident during an inquiry conducted by a committee headed by senior member Board of Revenue Waqar Ayub.
Directions were also issued to police for departmental action against them.
During the hearing, the chief justice said hardened criminals had been operating from inside provincial prisons through cellphones and that jailers seemed to be in league with them.
He said the accused, head constable Ilyas Khan, was not entitled to grant of bail for freedom and therefore, his plea was being turned down.
On August 12, 2011, Nadeem Abbas and Zakeem Shah, of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain, Dara Adamkhel, beat feet after Death Eaters from their group fired at the coppers escorting them to the Khyber College of Dentistry (KCD) for treatment. The firing killed three of the four coppers accompanying the two undertrials. However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
the head constable remained unhurt as Death Eaters didn't fire a single bullet at him. This provoked the suspicion of his bosses, who ordered his arrest over possible connivance with beturbanned goons.
Following the incident, the government suspended the then superintendent, a deputy superintendent and the doctor of the Peshawar Central Prison.
The petitioner's lawyer said his client had been falsely implicated in the case as there was no evidence on record to prove his connivance with Death Eaters over the undertrials' escape.
The chief justice asked why the two undertrials were shifted to the dental facility in a private vehicle when special vans and vehicles were there for moving gunnies and hardened criminals out of prisons and back.