At least 10 people were injured Monday as police opened fire and resorted to heavy tear-gas shelling to quell a two-day mutiny by hundreds of prisoners at a southern Pakistani jail, officials and hospital sources said.
Officials said the injured included Afaq Rizvi, the deputy superintendent of the prison in Hyderabad, the scene of the unprecedented escape bid and rioting.
An angry mob of prisoners set ablaze an armored personnel carrier that entered the facility and opened fire, they said.
"We have received four prisoners with gunshot wounds while others were injured in tear-gas shelling and stone pelting," said Zia Chohan, a doctor at the city's main Liaquat Medical College Hospital.
He said a 32-year old prisoner, Qadir Bux, was in serious condition.
"We have been asked to remain on alert," the doctor said.
Hyderabad police chief Saud Mirza confirmed some prisoners had been shot.
Police said more than 1,000 prisoners made the violent early morning escape bid after an overnight lull at the facility.
Inmates used bricks to smash their locks and left their cells chanting slogans against authorities and began hurling stones at police, they said.
"It was a repetition of exactly what happened on Sunday," said Saud Mirza, police chief of Hyderabad, in southern Sindh province 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Karachi.
"The situation is now under control," Mirza told AFP.
The prisoners had been locked down after a day of unrest on Sunday, he said, adding that some would be moved to other prisons in the province.
Local resident Noor Naz said hundreds of police and para-military soldiers began an operation at 8:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) to stop the prisoners.
Many were perched on rooftops and were seen firing shots in the air and lobbing gas canisters at the prisoners.
"I could hear shouts and slogans against police from inside," said Umer Farooq, owner of a nearby gas station.
Police on Sunday foiled a similar escape attempt with tear-gas and later locked the prisoners in their barracks. Four police and jail officials received minor injuries on that day.
The trouble follows a recent search operation launched by authorities on intelligence reports that arms and drugs were being smuggled into some prisons in Sindh province.
Officials said police seized large quantities of drugs and weapons from the cells of dangerous criminals at the Hyderabad prison.
Prison officials said the mutiny was in retaliation for the search and the shifting of 200 inmates to other jails in the province.
Provincial Home Secretary Mukhtar Ahmed said "cases of serious nature including attempt to escape, mutiny and rioting would be lodged" against those who had rioted.
"They are law breakers, who have setup their own private jails within the prisons. They were doing all kinds of illegal things," he said.
Some 2,500 prisoners are in the jail, more than double its capacity.
The 11-month old military regime in July appointed a senior army officer as chief of Sindh prisons to curb drug trafficking within prisons, often believed to have been aided by prison officials -- KARACHI (AFP)
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