Over 700 still in hiding: IG prisons
The jail authorities on Monday said that the members of the law enforcement agencies could arrest only one jailbreaker, out of over 700, in the past three months.
Inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Syed Md Motaher Hossain revealed the information at a press conference at the Prisons Directorate in Dhaka.
In an earlier press conference on December 4, 2024, the jail authorities had said that at least 2,200 inmates had fled after breaking jails before and after the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 and nearly 1,500 of the jailbreakers either surrendered or were arrested by the law enforcement agencies until the day.
In the December 4, 2024 press conference, the jail authorities said that over 700 jailbreakers remained in hiding.
The IG prisons in Monday鈥檚 press briefing again said that over 700 jailbreakers were still in hiding.
鈥楾here is no significant progress in arresting over 700 inmates who fled jails. The number [shared in December and on Monday] is the same as the law enforcement agencies could not arrest them,鈥� he said.
Motaher said that they had given first-class division to 151 prisoners, including 30 former ministers, state ministers, and deputy ministers, 38 former lawmakers, 70 former and present government officials, and 13 in other categories.
鈥榃e could not provide 24 special prisoners with division for various reasons,鈥� he added.
鈥業t is an all-time problem that Bangladesh jails are overcrowded than its capacity. We have already started operations at Sylhet Central Jail-2, which is known as Sylhet Metropolitan Jail. A process is also underway to launch a special jail at Keraniganj,鈥� he said, adding that they had also taken initiatives to expand several old jails, including that in Rangpur and Rajshahi. 聽
He said that they had a capacity of accommodating 42,877 inmates in 69 jails across the country and the number of prisoners stood at 70,065 on Monday.
He said that Operation Devil Hunt had increased the number of prisoners by about 5,000.
He said that they seized drugs, a huge sum of money and a good number of mobile phones during their sudden search operations in the past three months in Keraniganj jail.
The IG prisons said that they had taken measures to increase the quality of service for the prisoners, including introducing a hotline for collecting
inmates鈥� information, a digital visitor management app, the compulsory use of body cameras for officials and staff members at important places of jails, bringing 69 jails under fiber network connectivity and installing solar power in big jails.