Staff Reporter:
Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Md. Motaher Hossain yesterday said more than 700 prisoners out of over 2200 who escaped during the July Uprising are still fugitive.
“Of the fugitives, nine are militants and 69 others are death row and life sentence-awarded convicts,” he said while responding to a question from the journalists in a briefing at the Prison Directorate Headquar-ters in the capital’s Bakshibazar area.
He also said that 29 firearms have not been recovered so far among the weapons looted at that time.
“Law enforcement agencies are working to recover the weapons and arrest the runaway prisoners,” he said.
In response to a journalist’s question about BNP leaders’ allegation that the party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia was subjected to inhuman torture while in prison and their demands to bring the culprits to justice, the IG Prisons said that he had also seen such news in media.
However, no one has filed any complaint in this connection, he said, adding that if they receive a com-plaint, they will investigate the matter.
In response to a question about how many political prisoners and VIP prisoners are currently in the pris-on, the Inspector General of Prisons said that they do not have anyone to call a political prisoner.
“Because, no one arrested in any political case, was brought to the prisons. All those who are in the pris-on are prisoners. And there is no word for VIP prisoners,” he said.
The IG Prisons said that there are currently 163 prisoners in the prison who have been given divisions.
Another 28 have applied for division, he said, adding that, however, they did not get approval.
