Dhaka, Sept 16: Eight teenage criminals angry at the conditions at their juvenile jail slashed themselves with blades and broken bottles as a protest, police said today. The boys complained of inadequate food and no recreational facilities at the juvenile correction centre in Tongi near the capital Dhaka and said they maimed themselves after they were ignored or punished for earlier appeals.

"They were treated for their cuts in a local hospital and sent back to the facility late Monday," a police officer in Tongi said.

Officials at the jail said the boys' complaints were not legitimate and that they had been staying in isolated cells for security reasons.

The juvenile correction centre has been plagued with problems. Over the past two years more than 30 boys have fled the facility which now houses 173 inmates.
Bureau Report