Pak prisoner at Bagram dies of coronavirus, claim inmates

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani prisoner held at the Bagram prison in Afghanistan died due to coronavirus on Wednesday, his fellow inmates at the jail claimed.

They told The News in a phone call that Nisar Ahmad, son of Wazir Rahman, couldn’t recover from the viral disease and breathed his last Wednesday night at the hospital in the prison. They said his body under the prescribed protocols was to be shifted to Kabul on Thursday.

The other Pakistani prisoners said the 43-year old deceased was a member of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Bajaur tribal district. They said he belonged to Banday village and was a guard and aide to Maulana Faqir Mohammad, the deputy leader of the TTP and its head for Bajaur.

Maulana Faqir Mohammad, who escaped to Afghanistan after the military operation against the militants in Bajaur, was captured by the Afghan government in 2013. Nisar Ahmad, the deceased coronavirus patient, was also seized with him and they were presently being held at the maximum-security Bagram prison. The prison is located at the sprawling US airbase at Bagram north of Kabul.

The Pakistani prisoners at Bagram claimed about 170 inmates at the prison were suffering from Covid-19. They complained about lack of proper medical care at the prison. They maintained that the food being provided to the prisoners was of poor quality.

However, the claim of the prisoners about the high incidence of coronavirus at the Bagram prisoners wasn’t confirmed by the Afghan government. It also couldn’t be independently verified. Demands are being made for the release of prisoners from the Afghan jail due to the fears of the spread of coronavirus pandemic.