Another Pakistani citizen jailed in India reportedly died of natural causes on Thursday night, according to a media outlet’s report.
According to the report, 62-year-old Mohammad Azam was arrested by Indian officials for allegedly illegally crossing the border and was then transferred to a jail in Firozpur, in East Punjab.
However, despite his jail sentence ending in 2016, Azam was not released but instead moved to a jail in Amritsar. When his condition worsened, he was shifted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, where he later passed away.
Last month, Shakirullah, another Pakistani prisoner, was stoned to death by other inmates in Rajasthan’s Jaipur Central Jail.
His body was handed over to Pakistan at the Wagah Border last Saturday and his family laid him to rest in their hometown in Sialkot.
The February 20 murder of the Pakistani inmate had come after India levelled baseless allegations against Pakistan of being involved in the Pulwama attack in occupied Kashmir. Shakirullah had been in the Indian jail since 2001.
Pakistan, in this regard, had lodged its protest with India after the inspector general of police (IG) for Rajasthan and in-charge of prisons Kapil Garg confirmed the news of Shakirullah’s murder.
“The Indian administration failed to protect Shakirullah,” said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
The Pakistani prisoner had been eight years into a life term when he was attacked at the Jaipur central jail. He was stoned to death following a quarrel, Garg told AFP.
The deceased’s family, on the other hand, maintained that the late Shakirullah was not mentally fit and crossed Indian territory by mistake during his visit to Shakargarh to visit a festival.
