Rehman Malik orders inquiry into death of Indian national in Pakistan prison
Islamabad: Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said he had ordered an inquiry into the death of Indian national Chambail Singh, who died after he was allegedly assaulted by prison staff in Lahore in December 2012. "I (have) ordered an enquiry by (the Federal Investigation Agency) today," Malik said in a message posted on Twitter.
He was responding to a post by an Indian Twitter user who had claimed that Singh was "murdered" in a Pakistani prison. Authorities in Lahore had earlier ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of Singh after another prisoner, a Christian lawyer named Tehseen Khan, alleged that the Indian national had died after he was beaten by staff at Kot Lakhpat Jail on January 15.
Officials of the jail have refuted Khan's allegations and said Singh died of a heart attack. They said he was taken to Jinnah Hospital on January 15 and doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
The Judicial inquiry is yet to be completed because an autopsy has not been performed on Singh's body, which is being kept at the mortuary of Jinnah Hospital. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad has asked Pakistani authorities to speed up the process of handing over Singh's body.
There are currently 33 Indian prisoners in Kot Lakhpat Jail and officials have said all of them are safe. Singh hailed from Jammu and Kashmir and is believed to have been in his sixties, Indian officials said.
He was serving a five-year prison term for alleged involvement in espionage. The records of Kot Lakhpat Jail state that Singh was arrested near the border at Sialkot in 2010. He was brought to the jail in June 2012. Singh was to complete his term in 2015.
Rehman Malik orders inquiry into death of Indian national in Pakistan prison - Pakistan - IBNLive
Family of dead prisoner demands body from Pakistan
The family of prisoner Chamel Singh, who died in a Pakistani jail after he was reportedly beaten up by the prison staff, requested the Central government to intervene in bringing his body from the neighbouring country.
"We demand the body of my father from Pakistan. We urge the Union government to intervene and take up the matter with Islamabad," Dara Singh, son of Chamel Singh, who was lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore at the time of his death, said.
Dara Singh, accompanied by over 100 villagers, presented a petition in this regard to Divisional Commissioner Pradeep Gupta to be handed over to the Centre.
"We have given a petition to the DC who has promised us to take up the issue with concerned authorities for return of the body of our father from Pakistan," Dara told reporters.
"According to media reports, Pakistan authorities have said if the Indian government takes up the matter, they will return the body," he said.
"So, we urge the government to take up the issue with Pakistan," Dara Singh, whose mother Kamlesh Devi was present at the press conference, said.
"My husband had written a letter to us that his jail term is completing and he will return in two to three months," Kamlesh said.
"He wrote to us he was hale and hearty," she said.
Media reports said Chamel Singh, a resident of Pargwal area in Jammu, was "mercilessly beaten" by the prison staff in Kot Lakhpat jail.
The reports quoted Pakistani lawyer Tehseen Khan, who was recently released from Kot Lakhpat jail, as saying he had seen the prison staff assaulting Chamel Singh for using water from a tap to wash clothes on January 15.
Chamel died two days later at Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, according to the reports.
Indian High Commission officials said they had been formally informed by the Pakistani authorities that Singh had died in Lahore on January 15.
A note verbale on the matter did not mention the cause of Singh's death, the officials said.
Chamel Singh was arrested and convicted for espionage in Pakistan in 2008.
His family said he was not involved in spying and had gone missing from his fields on the border with Pakistan in July 2008. 2
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_family-of-dead-prisoner-demands-body-from-pakistan_1793536