LAHORE, April 4: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday remarked that jail officers were involved not only in bringing narcotics for inmates but also in supplying female prisoners to influential jailbirds.

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu gave these remarks during hearing of an appeal challenging acquittal of former Punjab IG Malik Iqbal and other police officers involved in the killing of nine people including four civil judges during 2003 when they were on a visit to Sialkot jail.

The jail superintendent was present in the court and tried to defend officers when the judge asked him how come the attacker-pris-oners got weapons in huge quantity. The superintendent said normally subordinate staff was involved in supply of weapons and narcotics in jails.

Justice Sidhu told the superintendent that a number of cases pertaining to such incidents were pending with the court. On judge`s inquiry, appellant`s counsel Advocate Aftab Bajwa also endorsed the happening of such incidents in jails. The judge adjourned further hearing of the appeal till Thursday (today).

At the time of the incident, the main accused persons including Malik Iqbal was Gujranwala DIG, Amjad Javed Saleemi Sialkot DPO, Raja Munawar Husain Gujrat DPO, Sikandar Hayat Sialkot jail superintendent, and Dr Sajid Husain, then surgeon Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Sialkot.

The judges who lost their lives included Syed Shaharyar Bokhari, Asif Mumtaz Cheema, Sagheer Anwar and Shahid Munir Ranjha.

The judicial officers led by then Sialkot district and sessions judge Chaudhry Zafar Husain had on July 31, 2003, visited the jail and some prisoners opened fire and held these judges hostage. As a result of police action, three judges and as many attackers died on the spot. Syed Shaharyar Bokhari was shifted to hospital where he had succumbed to his injuries.

An anti-terrorism court on Dec 23, 2006, acquitted 23 accused and awarded minor sentence to only two accused Raja Mushtaq Ahmad, jail assistant superintendent, and warden Muhammad Hafeez.