Authorities in Bangladesh's central jail in Dhaka said they were struggling to find room, safety - and some special consideration - for streams of top politicians and other VIPs detained in an army-led anti-corruption drive.
"Where do we put them? They are mostly VIPs and their comfort and security is a prime concern while they are in prison," said Brigadier-General Zakir Hasan, Inspector General of Prisons.
"We are facing tremendous pressure to ensure accommodation and other facilities for the extra flow of high-profile prisoners. The prison was already overfilled before the new stream started coming in," he told Reuters.
The interim government, which took over in January, has vowed to clean up politics from widespread corruption before holding parliamentary elections around the end of 2008.
It also imposed a state of emergency, postponed an election planned for January 22 and banned all political activity in the wake of deadly political violence. More than 170 senior politicians, including former ministers, media tycoons and a son of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Tareque Rahman, are in the Dhaka central jail as a result of the anti-corruption campaign.
"Now we have 10,000 inmates, about four times more than its listed capacity," said Hasan. "They include all types of criminals - killers, drug-peddlers, thugs, and others. We cannot make proper room for the political inmates who want, and often deserve, some special treatment," he added, without elaborating.
Hasan said the number of prisoners in the country's 66 jails was 84,000, against an ideal maximum capacity of over 27,000. That made it hard to find room for new prisoners, Hasan said. "Still we do that, and also put some in prison hospitals." He urged the authorities to provide the jails with adequate manpower and security gadgets.