PESHAWAR: The police on Tuesday took into custody two inmates of Peshawar Central Prison on the charge of sexually abusing other prisoners on the premises.

The police officials told Dawn that an FIR was registered at the East Cantonment police station against two prisoners and three officials of Peshawar central jail on last Friday after a teenage inmate complained of sexual abuse against them.

They said Peshawar district and sessions judge Shahid Khan had ordered the registration of the FIR against the suspects under sections377 and 109 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The officials said the police`s investigation staff had secured the custody of two prisoners named in the FIR.

They said a judicial magistrate gave the suspected prisoners in the police`s custody on their request for interrogation.

The official identified prisoners as Ghulam Nabi alias Prisoner No 75 and Rahat, a resident of Kangra village of Charsadda district.

They said the police had yet to arrest three jail staff members named in the FIR and that the arrests would be made after securing the prison department`s approval. A copy of the FIR available with Dawn shows that an undertrial juvenile prisoner had complained against five people, including three jail staff members and two prisoners.

The suspects were charged under sections 377 and 109 of Pakistan Panel Code. Section 377 deals with voluntary unnatural sex, while Section 109 is about abetment of acrime.

The FIR dated October 9, 2015 identifies the suspects as prisoner No 75, Numbardar Rahat, jail assistant Ajmal Khan, and chakl(i (confinement cells) chiefs at the prison Anwar Din and Siyar.

The FIR states that complainant in his statement before a judicial magistrate said that he was incarcerated in the Peshawar central jail and jail staffers including jail assistant Ajmal Khan and chakki chiefs Anwar Din and Siyar took Rs6,000 from prisoner No 75 identified by police as Ghulam Nabi and took him to the said prisoner`s barrack at night.

The complainant added that when he made hue and cry, another prisoner Numbardar Rahat beat him up and later Ghulam Nabi alias prisoner No 75 committed unnatural sex with him.

He also said he was ready for his medical examination and that justice should be dispensed to him.

Few days ago, the prisoner had lodged a complaint about the matter with Peshawar district and sessionsjudge Shahid Khan, who had ordered aninquiryintoit.

The complainant named in two theft cases has been in the prison since Aug 18, 2014.

An official told Dawn that after the alleged victim had lodged complaint the district judge had referred him to a judicial magistrate for recording his statement and also conducting preliminary inquiry into his allegations.

Sources informed that the magistrate had recorded statements of some inmates of the prison.

In light of the said preliminary inquiry (when), the district and sessions judge had exercised his powers of Justice of Peace under Section 22-A of Code of Criminal Procedure and had directed the Peshawar senior superintendent of police (investigation) to take action under relevant provision of law.

Meanwhile, the provincial information department said in a statement that its juvenile section was completely segregated from the adult section and that juvenile pris-oners were not allowed to mix up with adult prisoners.

It added that juveniles were also not confined to barracks meant for adults and that adolescent prisoners of the age group of 18-21 were kept in aseparatebarrack.

The department claimed that the age of some of the prisoners confined in adolescents barracks was certified by the Jail Medical Officer to be above 21 years and therefore, they were shifted out of adolescents barracks where upon they started sending complaints to various authorities so as to get back to their previous barrack by pressuring and blackmailing jail administration on grounds of false and ill-founded non specific allegations.

`In the same campaign, one of them, who is not juvenile or adolescent, alleged sexual harassment by another prisoner of the same barracl< insisting he was put in that barracl< by prison officials purposely.

There are no instances of sexual harassment of juvenile inmates in this jail,` it insisted.