Jaipur: A Pakistani national lodged in the Jaipur Central Jail here was allegedly killed Wednesday in a brawl with fellow prisoners. Four other inmates were behind the murder, said the officials.
“A Pakistani prisoner was allegedly murdered today in the central jail. Identified as Shakirullah, alias Hanif Mohammed, who was convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, the prisoner was booked in 2011.The matter will be investigated by a judicial magistrate and also by the police,” Rajasthan Director General of Police Kapil Garg told reporters. The killing in Jaipur prison has been reported amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
An official said Shakrullah, 50, who was from Punjab’s Sialkot (Pakistan), was hit with a large stone during the prison fight.
According to Lakshman Gaur, an additional commissioner in the Rajasthan Police, Shakirullah entered into a brawl over the volume of a television inside the prison. “He was killed by four inmates. This was revealed in our investigation so far. He was convicted in 2017,” Gaur said.
Inspector general (Prisons) Rupinder Singh said Shakrullah was lodged in the jail’s special cell since 2011 and was serving life sentence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Senior administration and police officials rushed to the jail after learning about the death. Singh said the post-mortem would be conducted on the jail premises under judicial supervision.
Earlier, he and seven others were held in a Punjab jail on charges of radicalising young people. The module operated under the directions of its handlers in Pakistan, Jaipur Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said.
Rajasthan’s anti-terrorist squad had brought the eight accused from Punjab for interrogation on similar charges and booked them under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the official added.
In 2017, the L-e-T operative was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The news of the murder comes days after 40 jawans were martyred in a suicide bombing in Pulwama. Security agencies have said the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani spy agency, were involved in the Pulwama attack.