HYDERABAD, April 6: Jumo Khan, an important witness to the custodial death of under-trial prisoner Mehmood Khoso, died in the Hyderabad central jail hospital on Sunday.

A statement, issued by the superintendent of the central jail, said that Khan had been admitted to the prison hospital since Feb 19 because he was suffering from hypertension and cough.

His health, the statement said, showed no signs of improvement despite the medical treatment provided to him at the jail hospital and his condition became critical.

The chief medical officer, it added, was called in the wee hours of Sunday, who examined him and provided necessary treatment but the patient died of cardio-pulmonary arrest.

His body has been handed over to his son, Asghar Ali.

Khan was a retired employee of the prison department and a personal guard of the then deputy superintendent, Hyderabad central jail, Aijaz Hyder, when Khoso died in the prison.

He was arrested in October last year after being nominated in the case of the custodial death of Khoso along with jail superintendent Malik Mohammad Altaf Awan, deputy superintendent Hyder, and a convict Khano Machhi.

Khoso had died allegedly as a result of torture on March 15, 2002 inside the central jail.

Subsequently, a judicial investigation, ordered by the chief justice of the Sindh High Court, remained unfinished despite the lapse of over a year.

FIRE: A fire broke out in a local factory, processing cotton waste, in the SITE area of Kotri on Saturday.

A huge stock of cotton waste was completely burnt.

Khan Mohammad, owner of the factory, claimed that one of the processing machines caught fire, which engulfed the factory’s storage area, located in the upper storey of the factory.