Jail bait: Dead man walking

Prisoner listed as deceased languishing in jail for last 3 years.

GUJRANWALA:

A prisoner, currently being housed in the Gujranwala prison, was killed three years ago according to official records.

Gujranwala Central Jail inmate and resident of the Bund village in Daska, Kashif alias ‘Kashi’ allegedly killed a watchman named Zahir in 2002 with the help of his accomplices Waqas, Irshad and Amir. The court awarded the accused capital punishment at the time. Meanwhile, according to the police records dated May 21, 2008 Kashif and ten other prisoners Muhammad Naeem, Shehzad, Munir, Amanullah, Khawar, Israr, Arshd, Wasim, Asif, Farooq, Tariq were returning from court in a police van after appearing before the Additional Session Judge Daska Zafar Iqbal, when they broke the van’s door and fled.

According to a police report, the officials cornered the escaping criminals near Nandipur canal and they were killed in a shoot out. “At the time police officials confirmed his name in the list of victims.

We knew he wasn’t dead because we had been visiting him,” said Kashif’s wife Naila. Kashif’s family said that they had brought up the matter with police officials several times but they had been ignored. “They didn’t take the issue seriously but several cops told us not to pursue the matter and that if we kept quiet they would give us frequent visitation rights,” said Kashif’s brother Adnan.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) disposed of an appeal in the same case on the grounds that Kashif was killed in the encounter. “He was pronounced dead and we went along with it for years because we thought we would get to see him. Now the police are going back on their word so we have decided to come forward,” Adnan said.

At present Kashif is being held on charges of possession of illegal weapons. Jail superintendent police (SP) Malik Zia verified Kashif’s presence in the jail and confirmed that he was alive. “He wasn’t dead, that was a clerical error in our records. He is alive because he didn’t die that day,” he said.

Zia said that the police had verified Kashif’s records and that he had been pronounced dead due to a clerical error. “He is 50 years old and he has been charged with theft,” he said.

“The police was trying to cover up their fraud. If Kashif was dead all along and this is a clerical error than why did two separate courts confirm the fact that he was dead?” said lawyer Hassan Rasheed, adding “The police had a deal going with the family and now that the family has approached the media they are trying to cover up their actions.”

Kashif has requested television channels to convey the facts of the case to the chief minister. “He said that he had been imprisoned under false charges for three years. There was no record of him until a few days ago when fresh papers were drawn up,” said reporter Moin.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.