Jail authorities find drugs, SIMs in tennis ball, and mobile phone in hidden bag pocket

Jail inmates are getting mobile phones and drugs from outside, Inspector General of Prisons Syed Iftekhar Uddin has admitted.

He explained the methods used to smuggle in the stuff at a media conference on Thursday.

The chief of prisons, however, claimed the prisoners could not communicate with the outside world.

“They communicate while being taken to the court,” he added.

It is alleged that some inmates coordinate criminal activities outside from inside the jail.

It is widely believed that the snatching of three convicts of the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) at Trishal, in Mymensingh, last year had been planned in jail.

The inmates ostensibly keep in touch people outside with the help of mobile phones.

Drugs are also believed to be available in the country’s jails.

The chief of prison showed journalists mobile phones and SIM cards at the media conference.

Uddin also displayed a tennis ball, a bag, and a can. He said they were used for smuggling mobile phones, SIM cards, and drugs.

“It looks like a tennis ball. But it contains drugs and SIM cards. The balls are lobbed into the jail compound from outside,” he said.

About the bag, he said, “It seems empty… relatives sent clothes for the inmates in it. But it has a false inside pocket with a mobile phone in it.”

As for the can, he said the relatives of inmates had sent medicines in the container. “But there is a hidden compartment on the lid with a SIM card inserted in it.”

“I am not entirely ruling out possibilities of inmates communicating with the world outside, as mobile phones and SIM cards have been found during search operations,” Uddin said.

The jail authorities keep an eye on the inmates in jail; police guard them while being taken to court and brought back.

“We can’t prevent them from planning so long they have brains,” the IG Prisons said.

“But usually they communicate more with people outside on their way to court,” he said.

“The inmates are taken to the court in the morning and remain there for an entire day,” he added.

He also said the jail authorities were short of manpower. “Our guards don’t even get weekly holidays,” he said.

The media conference was organised on inmates’ welfare and rehabilitation.

According to the IG Prisons, there were 71,241 prisoners in Bangladesh’s 68 jails. The number is almost twice their capacity of 34,681.

Of them, 70 percent are under trial prisoners and the rest convicts.