Narsingdi District Jail
Prison in Bangladesh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Narsindi District Jail, also known as Narsingdi Jail, is the central jail for Narsingdi District located near the Dhaka-Sylhet highway.[1][2]
History
Narsingdi Jail was established in 1983 as a sub-divisional jail.[3] It had a slogan called Rakhibo Nirapod, Dekhabo Alor Poth.[4] It was upgraded in 1998 to a district jail.[3] In 2019, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved a 3.27 billion BDT project, to be implemented by the Public Works Department, to build new Narsingdi District Jail.[3]
2024 prison break
On 19 July 2024, the Jail was attacked by hundreds of people and burned down during the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement.[5][6] During the chaos, the total prison population of 826 escaped, including members of Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.[7][5][8] Narsingdi District Jail was the first jail to be attacked during the movement.[5] During the attack, 85 firearms and about 9,000 bullets were stolen from the jail.[9] Some guards escaped from the attack disguised as prisoners.[5] More riots and attacks on other prisons during that time saw 2,232 prisoners escape, but half of them surrendered soon after.[5] 11 cases were filed over the attack on the jail, according to Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman, Narsingdi District Superintendent of Police.[2] Jail Superintendent Abul Kalam Azad reported that the attackers took them hostage and they did not receive support from the district police.[8] Asaduzzaman Khan, Minister of Home Affairs, visited the prison, and some escapees surrendered through the Narsingdi District Bar Association.[8] All 77 prison guards were suspended.[10]
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on 5 August, prison breaks and attacks took place in 17 other prisons across Bangladesh.[5] All prisoners in Sherpur District Jail and Satkhira District Jail escaped.[5] Jamalpur District Jail was heavily damaged in the attack, but no one managed to escape.[5] 105 prisoners escaped from Kushtia District Jail and 200 from Kashimpur Central Jail.[5] By February 2025, only 184 escapees from Narsindi District Jail remained on the run after extensive operations to catch the escapees.[11]