QUETTA: The Balochistan government decided to install cell phone jammers in 11 prisons of the province, following the interior ministry’s disclosure of illicit activities including target killings and kidnappings being operated from within jails.
According to an official of the Balochistan Home Department, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted permission for the installation of jammers in 11 prisons of Balochistan. The government has already purchased the jammers and Rs 7 million has been allocated for this purpose. In the first phase, jammers would be installed in Mach Jail, the province’s biggest prison, which is located in Bolan about 90 kilometres southeast of Quetta. The home secretary directed that the job be completed within a month.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, in his last visit to Quetta, disclosed that most banned outfits, terrorists groups and kidnappers were operating from within prisons in Balochistan and were continuing to stay in contact with Punjab-based banned organisations. Malik said this while responding to a query about targeted killings of Shia Muslims, bomb blasts and increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom in Balochistan. The police had already launched a massive crackdown on different prisons of Balochistan and had seized mobile phones and other equipment.
