Pak: Heavy rains flood Punjab jail, 700 inmates relocated

Lahore, Jul 18 (PTI) Heavy rains inundated a jail in Pakistan's Punjab province on Friday, forcing the administration to shift around 700 prisoners, including "dangerous inmates" to another prison, an official said.  A wall of the Mandi Bahauddin district jail collapsed due to rain and flooding, following which rainwater accumulated in the prison barracks.

In some barracks, the water level reached a minimum of five feet.  "Due to floodwater entering the jail in Mandi Bahauddin (some 200 kilometres from Lahore), around 700 inmates have been transferred to the district Jail Hafizabad amid high security," a Punjab government official told PTI. "Of 700 prisoners, there were some dangerous inmates. However, none of them tried to escape," the official said.  Heavy rains have caused a flood-like situation in several districts of the Punjab province, including Mandi Bahauddin.  The Punjab government on Friday issued a report on the damages caused by heavy rains across the province since June 25.

"From June 25 until now, 109 people have lost their lives and 438 have been injured across Punjab," it says.  The highest number of deaths occurred in Lahore with 24 fatalities, followed by Faisalabad with 15, Sheikhupura and Rawalpindi with ten, Okara with eight, and Bahawalnagar with seven.

"Some 80 people died due to the collapse of walls, roofs, etc. Some 10 people lost their lives due to electrocution, and six people lost their lives due to lightning. Thirteen people were drowned due to careless bathing in canals," it says.

There have been 351 incidents of dilapidated buildings collapsing, with most deaths caused by these collapses, it added.

Over 170 people have been killed across the country since June 25 in rain-related incidents. PTI MZ GRS GRS