Violence rocks Faizabad jail, 8 injured; police restore order after 6 hours

Faizabad (UP), February 9 

A clash between two groups of prisoners sparked a riot in Faizabad divisional jail where at least eight inmates were held hostage and badly assaulted during the standoff that lasted six hours on Saturday, according to police sources.

The violent inmates threatened to blow up cooking gas cylinders which they took from the jail kitchen and pelted stones on security personnel as reinforcements were rushed to restore order.

Faizabad District Magistrate Anil Kumar Pathak said a magisterial enquiry has been ordered into the incident.

The trouble started at around 9 am when a jail functionary complained to the Superintendent about some undertrial prisoners talking on mobile phone, police said.

Miffed with his action, a group of prisoners thrashed him. When some other prisoners objected to it, the group attacked them too and held them hostage.

The rioters also broke CCTV cameras installed in jail as chaos reigned.  

Additional forces were called, which used drone cameras to take stock of the situation, they said.

After more than six hours, the security forces were able to free the eight badly injured hostages who were shifted to Faizabad district hospital, they said. 

According to sources, the jail has a capacity of 4,000 inmates but over 8,000 prisoners are lodged there. - PTI