ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has asked its diplomatic mission in New Delhi to acquire the relevant details regarding the death of a Pakistani inmate in a jail in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK).
Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that High Commission in New Delhi has been issued the related instructions for the collection of information into the reported suicide of a Pakistani inmate in the said jail.
The deceased identified as Shaukat Ali was detained in Srinagar jail, IHK. The Indian and foreign media quoted the jail Superintendent Harish Kotwal as claiming that Shaukat Ali used a scarf to hang himself from the iron bars of a toilet window at the said jail. His body was found early Saturday. Shaukat was arrested in 2011 after he ‘crossed’ into IHK. A top prison official K Rajendra told a foreign news agency that an inquiry had been ordered into Shaukat's death.
Earlier, the Pakistani prisoner who was arrested by authorities in India for ‘trespassing’ more than two years ago has been found hanging inside a jail in Indian Held Kashmir, an official said Saturday.
Shaukat Ali, 42, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, had been lodged in a jail in Amphala, about 300 kilometres from the region's main city of Srinagar, since December 2011.
He was arrested on charges of ‘illegally crossing’ the de facto border between the two rival countries.
"An inmate informed the jail authorities last (Friday) night that Shaukat was hanging from the grill of a toilet in the barracks," jail superintendent Harish Kotwal told a foreign news agency.
"He was hanging by a scarf and after he was brought down, the jail doctor declared him dead," Kotwal said.
The incident will be investigated by a magistrate and formalities for handing over his body to Pakistani authorities have begun, another police officer said.
Last May, a Pakistani prisoner died of his injuries after he was savagely beaten by fellow convicts in another jail in Indian Occupied Kashmir, leading to calls for an international probe into his death.
His death followed a similar assault on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail.
A high profile convict, Singh had been on the death row for more than 21 years.
India and Pakistan frequently arrest rival citizens for trespassing and many of them languish in jail for years even after serving their term as poor diplomatic ties mean fulfilling official requirements can take a long time.