Central jail prisoner dies in Karachi's Civil Hospital

KARACHI: Rana Zahid, a prisoner who fell ill in Karachi Central Jail, died at Civil Hospital, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The prisoner was shifted to Civil Hospital by jail officials after his health condition worsened at the Central prison cell. However, he failed to survive at the hospital during medical treatment.

The dead body of Rana Zahid was transferred to Jinnah Hospital for postmortem. No further details were disclosed so far regarding the disease the prisoner was suffering from.

Earlier on April 19, the Sindh Assembly had been apprised that as many as 2,847 prisoners were suffering from hepatitis and some 84 have AIDS across the province.

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During a Question Hour session in the provincial assembly, Minister for Prisons Syed Nasir Hussain Shah told the members that currently 2,847 prisoners were suffering from hepatitis, 84 jail inmates, all males, have AIDS, while 383 men and two women were suffering from chronic diseases in 18 jails of Sindh.

Giving details, he said that 1,200 inmates in the Central Prison Hyderabad were suffering from hepatitis, 171 in Central Prison Karachi, 42 in Central Prison Sukkur, 46 in Central Prison Larkana, 424 in District Prison Mirpurkhas, 154 in District Prison Sanghar, 55 in District Prison Badin, 481 in District Prison Shaheed Benazirabad and 65 at Youth Offenders Industrial School in Karachi till June 2017.

Shah claimed that the Sindh government was now taking all-out measures for the provision of complete medical facilities to jail inmates.

The effected inmates were being kept separately to ensure that others did not catch their diseases, he added.