PHC seeks reply from KP govt in case of Indian prisoner

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday sought reply from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the Prisons Department in the case of an Indian prisoner who filed an application for shifting him to the Peshawar Central Prison as he was facing life threats at the Mardan Central Prison.

Hamid Nehal Ansari, the Indian national who was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a military court in 2016 for anti-state activities, filed the application through his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar. He claimed militants being held at the Mardan Central Prison were hurling life threats at him.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah issued notice and sought reply from the government till May 31 when the next hearing in the case would be held.

During hearing, Qazi Anwar submitted before the bench that the Indian prisoner due for release from jail in December 2018 after completion of the sentence feared he could be attacked by militants jailed in Mardan prison.

He requested the court to issue an order to the government and the Prison Department to shift him to Peshawar Central Prison. The bench also directed the government in another application of the prisoner to submit reply as why he was kept in the solitary cell in the prison. Qazi Anwar contended that the Indian prisoner was being unjustly kept in the death cell at the jail. He said the Prison Department should provide him better environment in the jail.