Editorial: Undisclosed facts about the prison riot

Once again the Pul-e-Charkhi jail has seen bloody riots that left dozens dead or injured. The events this week were the second riot in the past two years. The rioters are being suppressed for voicing complaints, while the prison authorities go unpunished. The current crisis in Pul-e-Charkhi indicates that the status quo continues in jails and no improvement has been made in conditions there. Security officials always blame the Taleban and al-Qaeda for any untoward incident, and this time they once again said militants were behind the mayhem at Pul-e-Charkhi. Officials know that accusing Taleban and al-Qaeda allows them to cover up their own mismanagement. But adopting such double standards only creates more problems for society. Holding Taleban and al-Qaeda operatives in the same cells as common criminals is also problematic, given that they follow different ideologies. It is for the government and national assembly to thoroughly investigate the reasons for the prison crisis, and not to allow jails to be changed into brothels and centres of criminality.