Punjab: 4 Cops Hurt As 2 Groups Of Inmates Clash In Jail

At least four police personnel including the area station house officer (SHO) were hurt after they tried to control a massive violent clash that broke out between two groups of the inmates at the Central jail of Gurdaspur district in Punjab on Thursday.

Such was the gravity of the situation that the district police had to call in police force from the adjoining areas and districts Pathankot and Amritsar which had to even fire teargas shells to stop the clash.

Even though it was yet not clear what led to the clash or how many persons had been injured in it, reports reaching here said that several police personnel were hurt in the vandalism by the inmates who not only pelted stones at the police but also blasted a LPG cylinder inside the Central jail forcing the police force to fire teargas shells to control the situation.

Though an official confirmation was still awaited, at least four cops including the SHO of the Dhariwal police station, Mandeep Singh, ASI Jagdeep Singh, a security personnel Yodha Singh and a police photographer,  were hurt in the incident and subsequently hospitalised.

The reports said that while the two rival groups of the inmates got engaged in the violent clash, they even pelted stones on the jail and police personnel who tried to control the situation.

Meanwhile, according to reports, it was not the first time that violent clashes between the groups had been reported at the Central jail as it had not had an adequate inmate-jail staff ratio to control such a situation.