Swaraj takes notice of attack on Indian prisoner in Peshawar

Swaraj expressed concern and said that she was disturbed to read about repeated inhuman attacks on Hamid Ansari who is incarcerated in Peshawar jail since 2012. She said that the High Commissioner in Pakistan has been tasked to seek consular access to him and report on it.

I am very much disturbed to read about repeated attacks on Hamid Ansari who is detained in Peshawar jail since 2012. It is inhuman. /1

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 6, 2016

The Peshawar High Court was informed Thursday by Superintendent Jail Masood-ur-Rehman that the convicted Indian prisoner had suffered injuries after being beaten by other inmates at the prison. He said that the injuries were minor and such incidents often happen in prisons.

The counsel for the prisoner took the court that Ansari cannot be kept in the normal barracks with other prisoners for security reasons.  The court ordered for complete foolproof security behind bars after which he was moved to a death cell.

The 31-year-old Hamid Ansari who is a resident of Mumbai, was arrested from Kohat in 2012 for entering Pakistan illegally from Afghanistan and possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

He claimed that he had entered to met a girl which he had befriended online. He was arrested by intelligence agencies and was convicted in a military court in December 2015 to a three-year term.