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| Inmates Stay at Pakistan Jail |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/17/2005 |
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When a massive earthquake collapsed the prison, guards fled along with more than 100 prisoners. But three inmates chose to stay. Now living in a makeshift hut, they are waiting to be put back behind bars to finish their sentences in murder cases. "Why should I escape when I have only one year left to go?" asked Bashir Ahmad, 55, a heavy-set man who has traded his prison uniform for traditional civilian dress he got from a nearby relief camp. The Central Jail in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, was among the thousands of buildings caved in by the 7.6-magnitude quake that ripped through this mountainous region in early October. More than 100 of the jail's 116 prisoners - nearly all of them in the central yard when the quake struck - immediately fled to the streets of the ruined city, where well over 10,000 people are believed to have died. About 10 death-row inmates, who were in a special locked ward, were killed when the building collapsed on them. "I immediately began praying, and so did many others," said Ahmad, who also was in the yard. "We thought it would end quickly, but everybody began running here and there for shelter when the jail wards began collapsing. Prisoners quickly began pulling injured inmates from the rubble, he said. Like Ahmad, inmates Hidayat Ullah, 50, and Abdul Latif, 58, chose to remain. They, too, have less than a year left on their sentences in murder cases. Nursing his injuries, Ahmad stays in the hut all day, while his two friends wander into the streets to find food and water for themselves and two guards. As Ahmad recounted his survival, Mohammed Fayyaz, one of the guards, comforted him. Forcing them back into prison now would be pointless, he said. "We don't have any place to keep them." Ahmad, a soft-spoken man, planned to change his life once free. "Yes, I had a role in killing one person. It all happened over a land dispute," he said. "I seek forgiveness from God for what I have done." Fayyaz said the authorities should take the three men's honesty into account and commute the rest of their sentences. The three are demanding nothing. "We are not good people that someone should come to rescue us," Ullah said. |
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