January 31, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 21, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 30: Bodies of two undertrial prisoners from Landhi and Central jails were brought to the Civil Hospital Karachi on Wednesday.

Authorities claim that the young prisoners died from medical conditions though medical experts wait for the post-mortem examination reports to determine the cause of the prisoners’ death.

Police sources said the undertrials had died before they could get any first aid at the hospital. However, officials refused to comment on the issue, saying that it was too early to get into such debate.

“The bodies were received at two different times,” said a source close to the police and the Civil Hospital.

“There is no link as such between the two deceased prisoners but it obviously raises several questions about the state of our prisons, which are not maintained properly.”

The first body was brought from Central Jail at 0300 hours. Shahid, 25, was facing trial under 13-D of the arms ordinance registered by Nabi Bakhsh police. Sources said that he died on his way to hospital while the police officials who accompanied the dead failed to give any lead to his death.

Almost 12 hours later the hospital staff received another body, this time shifted from Landhi Prison. Asadullah, 24, arrested under theft charges by the Shah Latif police in July last year was facing trial in district courts.

Sources said there was no torture sign on the bodies. However, the causes of deaths cannot be ascertained until the report of autopsies is released.

Officials said that they completed legal formalities before conducting the post-mortem examination. However, police sources said that one of prisoners, Asadullah, was a heroin addict and died after failing to get the narcotic substance inside the jail though such claims raise doubts about the supply of narcotics inside the jail as the young man was arrested around six months ago.

“We can’t depend on verbal arguments as reasons behind deaths,” said Dr Bashir Sheikh, police surgeon. “Our team has conducted the required autopsies and it would take time to compile the findings, which would exactly determine the causes of deaths of both the prisoners separately.”

The medical team that conducted the autopsies of the two dead bodies comprised police surgeon Dr Bashir Sheikh, Professor Farhat Mirza and Dr Abdul Haq, whose findings would be disclosed in the final reports.

The jail authorities are convinced the two prisoners died from medical conditions. They said that both were provided the first aid when they complained about their health.

“We have adequate medical facility inside the jails but if a prisoner suffers from a serious health problem, he or she is taken to a major hospital of the city,” said Yamin Khan, IG Sindh Prisons.

He said both the prisoners died before their illness was diagnosed and death of undertrial prisoners in each jail on the same day was no more than an accident. He agreed with the problem of space shortage in 20 jails of the province, which were over occupied by 20,000 prisoners.

He said that the situation would improve within a few months as two new facilities in Ghotki and Naushehro Feroz were almost ready while construction of prisons in Mirpurkhas and Thatta was in full swing.

In Karachi, he said, 6,000 prisoners at present had been kept at Central Jail while 3,000 had been confined at Landhi Jail.