Pul-e-Charkhi prison

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Pul-e-Charkhi prison (Arabic: سجن بوليشرخي‎) is a large prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. Construction of the jail was begun in the 1970s by order of then-president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-89. The prison became notorious for torture and other abuses after it came under the control of Afghanistan's communist government following the invasion by the Soviet Union.

Policharki Prison

1 Living Conditions
2 Current Events
3 Riots
4 External links

[edit] Living Conditions

The living conditions of the prison have been criticized by several human rights groups. The prison had been cited as overcrowded and the living conditions as sub-par. There are eight cell blocks but only three are being used which has caused overcrowding. The prison is making room for 110 prisoners that are coming from the US prison in Guantánamo Bay. There are also about 70 female prisoners who share the prison. In most cases, children of the female inmates live with them in the prison.

[edit] Current Events

There are now 350 Taliban and al-Qaeda inmates out of the 1,300. In January of 2006, seven Taliban inmates disguised themselves as visitors and escaped from the prison. In recent news, there had been an inmate takeover on February 26, 2006. A four-day riot has led to the death of six people.

A prisoner, Abdul Rahman, had been held in Policharki but was released a few days later due to threats from neighboring cell mates. Abdul Rahman had been sent to the prison for his conversion to Christianity 15 year prior to his arrest.

[edit] Riots

Questions have been raised about the amount of control the government has over the prison. In December 2004, foreign prisoners attacked guards with razor blades. A subsequent shoot-out left one Iraqi and three Pakistani prisoners and four Afghan police dead. Then, in January 2006, seven prisoners escaped, apparently by mingling with visitors. In February 2006 riots were apparently sparked by a new prison policy forcing prisoners to wear bright orange clothing, the colored clothing rule was enacted to avoid events similar to the January escape. The February 2006 riot resulted in six deaths, and 22 injured in critical condition according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The rioters used makeshift weapons to attack guards, then ignited furniture, and smashed doors and windows. Eventually, they took over a wing of the prison which they held for a few days.