New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) India is still awaiting the post-mortem report of an Indian prisoner who died in a Pakistani jail allegedly after being tortured.
India has been “repeatedly requesting the Pakistani authorities for a post-mortem report” of Chamel Singh who died in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail Jan 15, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters here.
Responding to a question, he said India has been following the case of the “unfortunate death” of the Indian prisoner for the past over two months.
“As far as we know, the post-mortem report has not been provided to us as yet. Once we receive the report, we will study it and decide on the further course of action.
“But the first order of business is to get the post-mortem report as early as possible, and we have requested the Pakistani foreign ministry on several occasions to speed up the process,” he added.
Chamel Singh, said to be in his 60s, was serving a five-year term for espionage and died at Pakistan’s Jinnah Hospital Jan 15. During an autopsy done on March 13 – nearly two months after his death – marks of injury had reportedly been found on the body.
Soon after Chamel Singh’s death, reports surfaced that he had been beaten up by prison staff for washing clothes in the prison compound.
In view of the media reports, an inquiry was conducted after which the post-mortem was conducted, and the body was handed over to the Indian high commission soon after.
The Indian high commission had requested the foreign office of Pakistan to provide a copy of the autopsy report.
Pakistani authorities have denied that Chamel Singh died after being assaulted by jail staff.
A jail official had said that Singh, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, had suffered a stroke while working in the compound of Barrack No.4 with other Indian inmates and was rushed to the nearby Jinnah Hospital. However, he died on way to hospital.
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by authors, news service providers on this page do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Hill Post. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual.
Hill Post makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site page.
