Joynal Abedin Khan :
In the wake of massive arrests by law enforcing agencies during the on-going crackdown against suspected militants across the country, detained people are overcrowding jails, causing sufferings to the prisoners.
Prisoners and detainees have to live in inhumane conditions in absence of sufficient space and food, and toilet facilities, sources said.
The country’s jails are now packed with more than twice of the capacity, jail records show.
According to sources close to the Dhaka Central Jail Headquarters, the total inmate capacity of the country’s 68 jails is 34,147. But they
are currently holding 81,693 inmates, an increase of 47,012 additional inmates since Tuesday.
Besides, on average, 3,000 people are arrested every day by the law enforcers since Friday, said an official statement of Police Headquarters.
It also showed, some 11,686 new inmates were put behind bars between Thursday night to Monday night. Of them, 3155, 2131, 3192 and 3115 were arrested respectively on four consecutive days. But the number may exceed 13,000 during the ongoing crackdown.
Meanwhile, an already overcrowded Dhaka Central Jail, 7,621 inmates are currently being held in a facility designed for 2,682.
According to prison officials, each inmate is supposed to receive eight chatacks (1 chattack=2.06 ounces) of rice, 2.5 chattacks dal, four chattacks vegetables and three chattacks fish or meat. At breakfast, inmates are supposed to get bread and molasses. “Nearly three hundred prisoners share just one toilet. Inmates queue up from early morning,” Foysal, a private university student recently released from Dhaka Central Jail, told The New Nation on Tuesday.
“Five persons live in a space fit for one,” he said, adding: “For the last three days I had to sleep sitting upright in the suffocating congested jail.”
“I was given a piece of bread and a dollop of molasses for breakfast and a small amount of rice and dal for lunch and dinner,” he said. “The jail staff at the gate charges Tk 200 for sending every Tk 1,000 to an inmate. So, actually a prisoner gets Tk 800 for every Tk 1,000 which his or her family sends,” he said.
“The jail is apparently hell for those who are unable to manage the money,” said an auto-rickshaw driver who served one month. He said, those prisoners would be forced to lie down on their left or right side in a row, which is known in jail as hilsa fal. The designated cell keeper then pushes the back of the last prisoner in the row with his leg to ensure there was no room between prisoners, he added.
Earlier on February 2, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that the prisons in country currently have 69,774 detainees against the capacity of 34,796 detainees.
The minister informed that work in going on to increase the capacity of jails to 80,000 prisoners.
Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin said, “Overcrowding and surges of inmate numbers were not new. He admitted that food problems have sometimes occurred in the past.” “The thing is, we are doing our best and working hard to ensure maximum facilities to inmates with insufficient resources,” he said. “To cover food shortages, we serve vegetables instead of fish, potatoes instead of vegetables and smaller servings of rice,” the IG prison ssaid.
Forman Ali, Senior Jail Superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, told The New Nation that the chronically overburdened jail holds nearly 6,000 inmates all year round, adding, “The number of prisoners has risen in the last five days.” The number of people behind bars has risen sharply since the massive drive to weed out militants, he said.
Human right activists Nur Khan said that all the inmates were living a very miserable life.
He alleged that the prisoners will face danger situation if the number rose over 20,000 during the anti-militant drive.
In the wake of massive arrests by law enforcing agencies during the on-going crackdown against suspected militants across the country, detained people are overcrowding jails, causing sufferings to the prisoners.
Prisoners and detainees have to live in inhumane conditions in absence of sufficient space and food, and toilet facilities, sources said.
The country’s jails are now packed with more than twice of the capacity, jail records show.
According to sources close to the Dhaka Central Jail Headquarters, the total inmate capacity of the country’s 68 jails is 34,147. But they
are currently holding 81,693 inmates, an increase of 47,012 additional inmates since Tuesday.
Besides, on average, 3,000 people are arrested every day by the law enforcers since Friday, said an official statement of Police Headquarters.
It also showed, some 11,686 new inmates were put behind bars between Thursday night to Monday night. Of them, 3155, 2131, 3192 and 3115 were arrested respectively on four consecutive days. But the number may exceed 13,000 during the ongoing crackdown.
Meanwhile, an already overcrowded Dhaka Central Jail, 7,621 inmates are currently being held in a facility designed for 2,682.
According to prison officials, each inmate is supposed to receive eight chatacks (1 chattack=2.06 ounces) of rice, 2.5 chattacks dal, four chattacks vegetables and three chattacks fish or meat. At breakfast, inmates are supposed to get bread and molasses. “Nearly three hundred prisoners share just one toilet. Inmates queue up from early morning,” Foysal, a private university student recently released from Dhaka Central Jail, told The New Nation on Tuesday.
“Five persons live in a space fit for one,” he said, adding: “For the last three days I had to sleep sitting upright in the suffocating congested jail.”
“I was given a piece of bread and a dollop of molasses for breakfast and a small amount of rice and dal for lunch and dinner,” he said. “The jail staff at the gate charges Tk 200 for sending every Tk 1,000 to an inmate. So, actually a prisoner gets Tk 800 for every Tk 1,000 which his or her family sends,” he said.
“The jail is apparently hell for those who are unable to manage the money,” said an auto-rickshaw driver who served one month. He said, those prisoners would be forced to lie down on their left or right side in a row, which is known in jail as hilsa fal. The designated cell keeper then pushes the back of the last prisoner in the row with his leg to ensure there was no room between prisoners, he added.
Earlier on February 2, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that the prisons in country currently have 69,774 detainees against the capacity of 34,796 detainees.
The minister informed that work in going on to increase the capacity of jails to 80,000 prisoners.
Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin said, “Overcrowding and surges of inmate numbers were not new. He admitted that food problems have sometimes occurred in the past.” “The thing is, we are doing our best and working hard to ensure maximum facilities to inmates with insufficient resources,” he said. “To cover food shortages, we serve vegetables instead of fish, potatoes instead of vegetables and smaller servings of rice,” the IG prison ssaid.
Forman Ali, Senior Jail Superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, told The New Nation that the chronically overburdened jail holds nearly 6,000 inmates all year round, adding, “The number of prisoners has risen in the last five days.” The number of people behind bars has risen sharply since the massive drive to weed out militants, he said.
Human right activists Nur Khan said that all the inmates were living a very miserable life.
He alleged that the prisoners will face danger situation if the number rose over 20,000 during the anti-militant drive.
