RAWALPINDI: Two prisoners died at Central Adiala Jail on Saturday morning under mysterious circumstances. However, the jail administration claimed that they both died of cardiac arrest.

The deceased have been identified as Abbas Khan and Mohammad Basharat, police said.

According to sources, the two inmates were taken to the jail hospital by other prisoners after they were found unconscious in their cells. The jail doctors provided them medical treatment but the prisoners could not survive.

The sources said the two prisoners had been in a very poor health and had last night requested the authorities to shift them to hospital. But the requests were not taken seriously.

On Saturday, the jail authorities in a press release said the prisoners died of cardiac arrests in the jail hospital. They said the exact cause of the death of the inmates would be ascertained in an autopsy for which the bodies had been shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

The statement said Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed a case against Abbas Khan from Attock on Nov 4, 2016.

A court convicted and sentenced him to nine years in jail with a fine of Rs500,000.

The statement said Basharat, an under-trial prisoner, was arrested by the Wah Cantonment police after registering a case against him under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act on July 22, 2018.

“As per reports of medical officer, both the prisoners collapsed in their barracks suddenly and were rushed to jail hospital for medical treatment. However, both prisoners died due to heart attack.”

The jail hospital in a report said the prisoners were declared dead at 6:30am. “Clinically, it seems cardiopulmonary arrest. However, the exact cause could be ascertained by autopsy,” it said.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities requested Assistant Commissioner (AC) City Naeem Afzal to check the bodies before allowing the doctors to conduct a postmortem. However, the AC sent area magistrate Hafiz Imran to check if the deceased had been tortured. But the magistrate found no sign of torture on the bodies.

The assistant commissioner told Dawn that it was the basic requirement to examine the body before handing it over to doctors to see whether it bore marks of torture. She said Magistrate Hafiz Imran examined the bodies and prepared a report.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2019