A 50-year-old Indian national who was languishing in a Pakistani jail for nearly 25 years on spying charges has died in Lahore under mysterious circumstances.
Kirpal Singh had allegedly crossed Wagah border into Pakistan in 1992 and was arrested. He was subsequently sentenced to death in a serial bomb blasts case in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Kirpal Singh was found dead in his cell in the early hours of Monday at Kot Lakhpat Jail. The inmates of the jail near Kirpal stated that he complained about a pain in his chest and died instantly.Official, Kot Lakhpat Jail
The official said the body of Kirpal has been shifted to the Jinah Hospital in Lahore for an autopsy. A judicial magistrate was also called to record the statements of some prisoners regarding Kirpal Singh’s dead.
Kot Lakhpat Jail police station’s head, Nafees Ahmed said the jail authorities had called police to shift the body to the morgue.
Apparently, it seems the Indian prisoner died of natural death. However, autopsy will tell the exact cause of death.Nafees Ahmed, Head, Kot Lakhpat Jail
Ill-fated Kirpal from Gurdaspur was reportedly acquitted of charges of bomb blast by the Lahore High Court but his death sentence could not be commuted because of unknown reasons.
Jagir Kaur, Kirpal’s sister, earlier said that the family could not raise voice for his release due to financial constraints and no politician came forward to plead his case.
She protested at the Attari-Wagah integrated checkpost on the India-Pakistan border over his death on Tuesday.
My brother Kirpal has been murdered just like Sarabjit was earlier. The Pakistani jail authorities are responsible for his death.Jagir Kaur, Kirpal Singh’s sister
Jagir Kaur was accompanied by many other protestors, among them Dalbir Kaur, the elder sister of Sarabjit Singh, another Indian who was murdered in a Pakistani jail.
The family demanded that Kirpal’s body be handed over to them for cremation at his native village in Gurdaspur district.
Earlier, in last week of April 2013, another Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh was brutally attacked and murdered by two of his fellow prisoners at Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Both the accused-Muhammad Muddasar and Amir Tamba are facing trial for his murder in jail. Sarabjit was arrested on charges of conducting four bomb blasts in Faisalabad, Multan, and Lahore that killed 14 bystanders in 1990. He was sentenced to death.
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