ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday expressed concerned over the plight of Pakistani prisoners in India and asked New Delhi to release all such prisoners, who have completed their sentences, on humanitarian grounds.
The demand came after a Pakistani prisoner Shaukat Ali was found hanging from the iron window of a barrack toilet inside the Amphalla district jail in occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday morning.
Talking to media, foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said that Islamabad has demanded that all of its prisoners who have completed their actual sentences should be released on humanitarian grounds.
“We have asked our high commission in India to furnish us with more details about the incident,” the spokesperson said.
The FO spokesperson expressed concerned over the plight of Pakistani prisoners in India and claimed that they face so much torture at the hands of Indian authorities that either they lose their senses or commit suicide.
Shaukat Ali, a resident of Pind Sail Jathan in Sialkot, was arrested in Jammu in February 2011 after he crossed over from the international border.
K. Rajendra Kumar, director general prisons, told reporters in Jammu said that Ali was reportedly suffering from some mental ailment and was lodged in the Amphalla district jail in Jammu following court orders. He said that a magisterial probe into the death has been ordered.
The Pakistani diplomats based in New Delhi said that Indian officials has assured Pakistani officials that the incident will be investigated by a magistrate and, after completion of formalities the body of the prisoner will be handed over to Pakistani authorities.
