ISAF launches women’s prison in Shiberghan

Mazar-I-Sharif: The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has launched construction work on a women’s prison in Shiberghan, capital of Jawzjan province, where inmates are currently being held in two crowded rooms.

The foundation stone of the prison with nine rooms, a hall, a kitchen and other facilities was laid on Sunday. Yama Faqiri, spokesman for the German Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Balkh, said the detention centre was being built over 700 square meters of land inside the central prison.

He added it was the first female prison that PRT was constructing in northern Afghanistan. The PRT has also built the district police headquarters in Jawzjan and Balkh provinces.

Colonel Abdul Qayyum Jafri, superintendent of the Shiberghan Central Prison, informed Pajhwok Afghan News the prison would be constructed in five months. He acknowledged the 24 female prisoners presently being held in jail on various charges lacked proper accommodation.

After construction of the female prison, the central jail will be constructed by the Finnish PRT at the cost of 1.9 million euros. Jafri said around 403 prisoners in Shiberghan were without proper lodging, a long-standing problem that would be resolved with erection of the new building in two years.