KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday ordered an inquiry into the death of an undertrial prisoner in the Karachi central prison, said officials.

Zahid Husain, 35, who was arrested for putting up resistance to an anti-encroachment drive as his home off Superhighway was demolished in the recent action, died in the prison on Thursday night.

His body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where a medical board comprising an additional police surgeon, a medico-legal official and a forensic expert carried out the post-mortem examination in the presence of a magistrate and reserved his cause of death for histopathological and chemical examinations, said police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi.

Apparently, there were no torture marks on his body.

He was arrested along with three or four other people for riots, attacking police, etc, on July 13, said an official of the SITE Superhighway Industrial Area police.

The officer claimed that the district authorities with the help of police carried out an anti-encroachment driver in Ahsanabad in compliance with directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2019