Prisoner dies of ‘cardiac arrest’ in Haripur

HARIPUR: A prisoner died of cardiac arrest at the Central Prison Hospital here on Saturday night, officials said.

They said that the deceased Jamal, son of Ameer Said, a resident of Bajaur Agency, was convicted of murder under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and he had been behind bars for many years. He was shifted to Haripur Central Prison on December 14, 2003 from Swat.

According to sources, Jamal was under treatment at the Psychiatry Ward of Central Jail Hospital since 2003. According to jail authorities, his situation deteriorated and he died of cardiac arrest. 

However, independent sources claimed that Jamal died when the prisoners deputed by the jail administration for maintaining order inside the prison allegedly beat him up over a petty dispute.  The sources said that Jamal had quarrelled and was allegedly hit with a stick on the head that caused his death.

Some sources said that the doctor on duty recommended the autopsy of the body, but his legal heirs took the body without postmortem. Jail Superintendent Khalid Abbas was not available for comments.