RAWALPINDI: A Briton accused of blasphemy, who was shot by a police guard at his cell in the Adiala Jail, has not yet fully recovered and is likely to remain in the hospital until his condition improves.

A statement issued on Tuesday by Reprieve, a UK-based legal charity that represents the accused man, expressed fears that the 71-year-old with a history of mental illness might be transferred back to the prison where he was shot. A spokesperson for the group said that his lawyers filed an application asking that a court rule he be kept in the hospital.

Following surgery to treat injuries from his shooting, the prisoner is said to have contracted a chest infection. The medical superintendent of the hospital told Dawn that the medical board had not yet declared him fit to go back to jail.

He said that the patient was currently being kept in separate room, guarded by police round the clock. Senior psychiatrists from other top hospitals in the garrison city have also visited the man, who had already been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by doctors in the UK.

Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed told Dawn the inmate would only be shifted to prison when doctors will declare him medically fit to be moved back. He said that since there was facility to tend to gunshot victims in the prison, the prisoner could not be moved before his treatment concluded successfully.

“If the prisoner is shifted back to Adiala, he would be given extra security cover. There are three other inmates in Adiala Jail facing similar charges and their security had been beefed up as well,” he said.

David Cameron has previously expressed concern over the case but the injured man’s family and Reprieve are calling on the British government to do more to ensure that his life is not put at further risk.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd , 2014