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Juvenile prisoners sexually abused at Adiala Jail

By Shahzad Malik

ISLAMABAD: Juvenile offenders living with adult prisoners at Adiala Jail are exposed to sexual exploitation, harassment and physical and mental torture, a mole in the jail told Daily Times on Monday.

There’re around 93 juvenile prisoners at the jail living with hardened criminals due to which the latter are feeling no hindrance in rubbing their color off on them. Records show that majority of these juveniles commit serious crimes like robbery, theft and drug trafficking after serving their terms.

The rights of juvenile prisoners languishing in different jails of the country have been protected in the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2002. However, the jail authorities, especially of Adiala Jails are least bothered about the implementation of the ordinance, thus exposing the juveniles to sexual abuse, harassment and physical and mental torture by the adult prisoners and jail staff. Under the ordinance, a child cannot be hand-cuffed, put in fetters or given corporal punishment during custody, but a majority of the juveniles are being subjected to direct harassment and physical and sexual exploitation.

Talking to Daily Times, Ulfat Kazmi, head of Global Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare of prisoners, alleged that jail officials and influential prisoners sexually abused the juvenile prisoners. He said there were only three special children jails in the country in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, but there was no such separate jail in NWFP and Balochistan.

He claimed to have seen some juvenile prisoners sleeping in toilets because of scarcity of space in some jails. Adiala Jail Superintendent Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig told Daily Times that a three-room juvenile barrack had been set up at the jail where juvenile prisoners falling in the age group of 13, 15 and below 18 were being kept.

He said majority of the juvenile prisoners were involved in narcotic cases. He said it was very unfortunate that drug barons had used juveniles in the smuggling of narcotics.

He said the jail administration was also giving a special attention to the education of these young offenders so that they could turn over a new leaf after coming out of jail. He said a library had also been set up at the jail where computers had also been installed.

Besides, Baig said, young offenders could also play indoor games like badminton, table tennis and Ludo. He rejected the reports that juvenile prisoners were being sexually harassed.

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