02 January 2005	Sunday	20 Ziqa'ad 1425

LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Jan 1: A man, jailed on charges of kidnapping, died of renal failure in the Central Prison in Peshawar on Saturday.

Ashna Gul, 32, had been sent to jail by the Jamrud political authorities on charges of being involved in an attempt to kidnap a Bara resident in 1998. He belonged to the Madokhel tribe of the Ghundi area in Jamrud tehsil.

Relatives of the deceased said that Ashna Gul had developed kidney ailment in jail and had been undergoing treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital. Dr Nusrat, a close relative of the deceased, said that the accused had completed his six-year jail term in August 2004 but was undergoing additional confinement because of the non-payment of fine amounting to Rs40,000.

Dr Nusrat said that the deceased had been falsely implicated in the case and the man, whom he was supposed to have tried to kidnap, given a testimony that Ashna Gul was not involved in the kidnapping attempt.

Ashna Gul, he said, had been denied the right of appeal against his prison term under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

His parents regretted the attitude of the political authorities who refused to waive the fine imposed on their son. Mr Gul's father, Mr Sarfaraz said that he had appealed to the administration for the release of his son citing his son's health problems.