Hyderabad: Around 700 prisoners in the city will be observing fast during Ramadan. Police authorities have made separate arrangements for Muslim prisoners in these high-security prisons located at Cherlapally and Chanchalguda, the Central Prison, Special Prison for women, and the Central prison.
B Saidaiah Superintendent of Central Prison Chanchalguda said “All the prisoners who are fasting will be accommodated in a separate barrack. They will wake up at 3 am and have their pre-dawn meal. Similarly, in the evening they will break their fast. Volunteers belonging to different organizations will supply fruits and dates to them”.
Haleem will also be available to the prisoners at Chanchalguda prison twice or thrice during Ramadan but the prisoners will have to buy it. The prisoners serving jail time for various offenses committed including murder and property crimes, earn around 70rs per day working in different units inside the prison and the same amount is transferred into their accounts.
“They have to buy it at their own cost from the canteen in the prison,” said the Superintendent.
The prison library is equipped with Holy Quran and other religious books. Referring to these books available at the prison Superintendent said, “Prisoners are at liberty to read the books. They will be allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque in prison and on regular days they will offer prayers in their barracks,” the Superintendent said.
Similar arrangements have been made in Special Prison for women, were in 55 women will be fasting in this month. Al- Khair Society and Jamaat-e-Islamic, two organizations have come forward to provide fruits to the prison inmates.
“A separate team of inmates will supervise the cooking activity. The food will be cooked in the kitchen of the prison and served at the fixed timings for sehar and iftar along with a cup of tea,” said Basheera Begum.
The authorities at the Cherlapally prison have made similar arrangements for the inmates of the prison, with about 200 prison inmates observing fast throughout this holy month, Telangana Today reported.