Editorial - Indo-Pak: Conflict heightens as Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah is attacked as a reaction to Sarabjit Singh
As a response to Sarabjit Singh’s unexpected death, Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah, serving a life term in India, was attacked inside the high-security Kot Balwal jail here by a fellow inmate this morning; and his condition is stated to be serious, as reports suggest from India.
It is apparently clear that the attack on the 52-year-old convict with a sharp weapon, was a backlash against the death of Indian terrorist Sarabjit Singh in a hospital in Pakistan yesterday, after being in critical condition for nearly a week, following a brutal assault by fellow inmates in a high-security Lahore jail.
Official sources said that the Kot Balwal jail superintendent Rajni Sehgal has been suspended by the Jammu and Kashmir government, which also ordered a probe.
The sources said that Sanaullah, a resident of Pakistan, was admitted in Government Medical College hospital in an unconscious condition, with serious injuries on his head after being hit by a fellow inmate in the morning.
A case of assault was registered against Vinod Kumar, an ex-serviceman who is also serving a life term in the jail in the outskirts of Jammu. Kumar hails from Uttrakhand.
The sources said that the health condition of Sanaullah was stated to be very critical, as he was hit with a very sharp weapon. Some reports claim that he has been attacked by a pick-axe. India needs to answer, how such a weapon reached within the premises of the jail, even after India claimed to have heightened the security of Pakistani prisoners following Sarabjit’s death. Shinde, the Union Home Minister of India, had issued advisories to all the states, for maintaining high vigil in jails and ensuring there was no attack on any Pakistani prisoner lodged there.
Sanaullah may be shifted to Chandigarh’s PGI for treatment, as his Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was pretty low. GCS is a scale for measuring the level of consciousness, especially after a head injury, in which the scoring is determined by three factors: amount of eye opening, verbal responsiveness, and motor responsiveness. Sanaullah was arrested on April 1999 in connection with five cases related to Jihadi activities in Kashmir. The attack occurred ahead of Sarabjit’s funeral at his native village in Punjab.
Many apologists in Pakistan made a hue and cry over Sarabjit Singh, having no idea of India’s reputation of treating Kashmiri and Pakistani prisoners. There is no room for doubt, as many humanitarian organizations’ activists have unearthed facts about abductions, mass graves, tortures leading to amputations and rapes in Indian prisons. Yasin Malik, the leader of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation front, Asiya Andarabi, her husband Qasim Fatoo, and Musarrat Alam, being leaders of the Kashmir struggle, have seen the worst themselves let alone common Kashmiris. But let’s remember some Pakistani bodies that were tortured by Indian jail officials and returned to Pakistan during the past decade, with no reaction from the spineless governments in Pakistan, who were even more reluctant for the sake of CBM’s (Confidence Building Measures) with a state that is known for the worst violations of human rights.
The tortured bodies of Abdul Aleem, 20, and Rashida, were handed over to Pakistan in June, 2008 - Abdul Aleem had strayed into the Indian territory in 2001, while Rashida was taken into custody in 2006 by the Indian Narcotics Department officials at Attari. Officials claimed that she was trying to smuggle drugs on Samjhota Express. Qateel, 27, was killed in Pune Jail on 8th June 2012, and hardly a very few of these prisoners are known to Pakistanis today. The irony here is that these were not killed by inmates, but by officials responsible for their fair trials and safe imprisonment.
Inmate violence in prisons is a global phenomenon and quite understandably; a place where the worst of humans are to face rendition for the most vulnerable to crimes similar to those that led to the fate of these unfortunate people, who end up there for certain durations depending upon their crime.
Even the world’s most heavily guarded prison at Guantanamo Bay has tested the US security guards, who are still trying to contain hunger strikes by prisoners (still awaiting fair trial since 12 years), and 0% violence within the prisons can never be guaranteed.
Excluding fishermen, there are about 220 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Many of them have completed their terms and still await any effort by Pakistan to negotiate their return, even after they have completed their sentences. We at PKKH will soon provide facts and figures on those Pakistanis.
India needs to play very cautious, as emotions have been extremely high in kashmir after Afzal Guru and the Indian denial to return his body, whereas Pakistan shamed India when it returned Sarabjit’s body, even when there was a logic to demand for Guru’s; but values and morality were given precedence as it is shameful to play politics on corpses, something which India is mastering as a disgusting art.
If India is unable to ensure security to Pakistani prisoners, it is in other words signing death warrants of its own hundreds of prisoners languishing in Pakistani jails. South- Asia has always been on the brink of war, and these incidents only increase the chances of major conflict. Pakistani Media and the apologists in the civil society, as well as the government need to come out of their tunnel view and talk straight facts before things spiral out.
List of Pakistani National Prisoners who have completed there terms in various Indian Jails Download Here