By Muhammad Luqman
Amid rising war hysteria across India after February 14 Pulwama incident, a Pakistani prisoner has been killed by the inmates at the Jaipur Central Jail in northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
According to Indian media, the deceased, identified as Shakirullah, was first brutally tortured and then stoned to death by his fellow Indian prisoners.
The Pakistan inmate was reportedly being held on the charges of espionage. Three convicts are believed to have murdered him inside the Jaipur Central Jail.
The killers had decided to kill the Pakistani inmate in protest against the February 14 Pulwama attack,” Indian newspaper The Nation News reported.
According to an initial probe, two Indian prisoners were involved in the killing as a ‘protest’ against the February 14 attack in Kashmir, according to media reports.
Thousands of Pakistanis are languishing in the jails of India on various charges and equally is true about Indians in Pakistani jail.
According to an agreement, both countries are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody twice a year, on January 1 and July 1. At least 347 Pakistani citizens or those believed to be Pakistani citizens, including 249 civilians charged under various acts and 98 fishermen who had crossed into Indian waters, are in Indian jails.
The two countries have adhered to the practice of exchanging the list of prisoners despite recurring tensions. It is one of the enduring Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) agreed upon when the two sides were trying to disentangle the complex relationship with the help of the composite dialogue process.
Fishermen from Pakistan and India are frequently detained for illegally fishing in each other’s territorial waters since the Arabian Sea does not have a clearly defined marine border and the wooden boats lack the technology to avoid being drifting away.
The news of the mysterious death of a Pakistani prisoner in a Jaipur jail comes as Pakistanis and Kashmiris in India are facing increasing threats by Indian nationalists especially the Hindutva parties including RSS and VHP.
