Thursday May 12, 7:11 PM
Inmates take eight guards hostage in rioting at prison in southern Pakistan
Rioting broke out at a high security prison in southern Pakistan on Thursday after inmates took eight guards hostage and guards lobbed tear gas shells to control the situation, police said.
Six people were reported wounded in the melee in which prisoners pelted guards with stones at the facility in Sukkur, a town about 550 kilometers (340 miles) northeast of Karachi, local police official Abdullah Sheikh said.
The eight guards were overpowered by inmates, demanding better conditions, in three wards when they were delivering breakfast, Sheikh said.
Police were ready for an operation if talks with the prisoners for securing the hostages’ release fail, he said.
About 2,400 people are being held at the prison and between 60 to 70 of them were involved in the rioting in the three section of the prison, Sheikh said.