Band no more a pipe dream for jailbirds

Once notorious for housing dreaded foreign jihadis, the high-security Kot Bilwal jail in Jammu is planning to play the peace pipe.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has raised an “Inmates Pipe Band” from among convicts serving life sentence in the jail. The band is the first of its kind in the country.

A team of 20 convicts was trained by professional police bandmasters for seven months in the jail. The band will be allowed to perform in social and official functions outside the prison.

On Tuesday the inmates gave their first live performance before an audience that included home secretary, IGP prisons, serving and retired police offices and families of the inmates. “I congratulate the jail authorities for organising this musical bonanza for the inmates and members of the civil society,” said BR Sharma, principal home secretary.

“For us the inmate is an inmate. Commission of crime does not count before us. Our job is to make their stay useful and transform the jail into a reforming and rehabilitation center,” said Rajni Sehgal, superintendent of Kot Bilwal jail.

What has added zinc to the whole process is the idea of the government to allow the inmates to perform in official and social functions, including marriages. “We are working on a proposal where in they can go out of jail to perform. The terms and conditions are being framed and an infrastructure is being set up. Transport, security and other modalities have to be worked out,” Sehgal said.

Jail authorities are also planning to include undertrials in the bands so that it could create an employment avenue for them once they are set free.