Indian prisoner in Pak shifted to another cell after attacks

Peshawar, Sep 10: A 31-year-old Indian prisoner, sentenced by a military court here for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card, has been shifted to a separate cell after he was attacked thrice by fellow inmates.

Hamid Nehal Ansari, a Mumbai resident arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online, was shifted last month by prison authorities after receiving direction from Peshawar High Court to adopt security measures for protecting him.

A division bench comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan on August 4 had directed Prison Superintendent Masoodur Rehman to hold a meeting with human rights activist Rakhshanda Naz and find a solution for safety and security of Ansari, The Nation reported.

Ansari was attacked and injured three times over the last couple of months and shifted to the hospital for treatment, the counsel added. He said even the head warden would subject him to brutality and slap him on a daily basis without any reason.

Anwar said that Ansari lodged a complaint about this with the superintendent. Superintendent of the prison Masoodur Rehman confirmed the incidents but insisted they're of minor nature and that such incidents did happen in prisons.

Rehman also told the bench that Ansari, who was serving three years jail term, had been kept in the death cell. Ansari had gone missing after he was taken into custody by intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012 and finally in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed on January 13 that he was in custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.

He was convicted by the military court for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

PTI