Pakistan seeks response from India on inmate killed in Jaipur prison
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Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday expressed concern and sought response from India on reports of the killing of a Pakistani prisoner by Indian inmates in a jail in Rajasthan's capital Jaipur.
According to police in Jaipur, 50-year-old Shakrullah, a Pakistani national belonging to the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was lodged in the Jaipur Central Jail, was allegedly killed on Wednesday in a brawl with other prisoners.
The prisoners fought over the volume of a television set and hit the inmate from Sialkot in Pakistan's Punjab with a large stone, they said.
According to Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO), Shakrullah was beaten to death by a group of Indian inmates in retaliation of the Pulwama incident.
"Pakistan is gravely concerned at media reports regarding the brutal killing of a Pakistani prisoner," the FO said.
It said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has officially raised the issue with the Indian authorities and requested them to urgently authenticate the report. The response is still awaited, it added.
Pakistan also called upon the Indian government to ensure foolproof security to all Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian jails as well as Pakistani visitors to India.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Director General of Police Kapil Garg said the matter will be investigated by a judicial magistrate and also by the police.
Shakrullah was lodged in the jail's special cell since 2011 and was serving life sentence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Earlier, he and seven others were held in a Punjab jail, accused of radicalising young people. In 2017, the LeT operative was sentenced to imprisonment for life.
The killing in Jaipur prison comes amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack in which a car bomb killed 40 CRPF personnel.
