The clashes intensified when the police intervened and opened fire to control the situation.
One prisoner was killed and more than 30 people, including several policemen, were injured in clashes that broke out between the inmates and cops at the Ludhiana Central Jail in Punjab this morning.
The violence erupted at the jail, which has about 3,000 prisoners, at around 11:30 am after the news of the death of one of the inmates, Sunny Sood, at Rajendra Medical College hospital, Patiala, broke out. Sunny Sood was accused in a drug case and members of his gang at the jail accused the police of "murdering" him.
The clashes intensified as policemen opened fire to control the situation. Stones were thrown by prisoners and over 40 rounds of gunshots were fired within an hour. Some of the inmates snatched weapons from the cops and four prisoners escaped from the jail; they were later brought back.
Some prisoners streamed the clashes live on Facebook. The situation was brought under control at around 1:30 pm after two hours of violent clashes.
A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who said the incident "did not reflect any law and order breakdown in the state".
The centre has also decided to deploy three companies of CRPF in Punjab after this incident. Better security at the jails in Punjab has been a long-pending demand of the state government.
The latest clashes have been reported less than a week after the prime suspect in a case relating to the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari in 2015, Mohinder Pal Bittu, was beaten to death at a jail in Patiala. He was killed at a high-security prison in Nabha, near Patiala, two inmates on June 22.