Bannu jail: Prisoner on death row commits suicide

Jail staff find victim hanging from a hook.

BANNU:

A prisoner on death row allegedly committed suicide in his cell at the Bannu Central Jail on Saturday.

A police official at the jail told The Express Tribune that the prisoner was kept in solitary confinement. He hanged himself with a piece of string inside the bathroom of his cell.

The prisoner was identified as Hakeem Zaman from Janikhel Frontier Region of Bannu.

According to a police official, the prison staff was distributing food for Iftar when they found the victim hanging from a hook in his bathroom.

He said the prisoner was shifted to the cell around 40 days ago and was awarded the death penalty by the court under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The official added that they would conduct an inquiry concerning the suicide. “The motive behind the suicide couldn’t be ascertained at the moment,” he said, adding that the body would be transferred to the hospital shortly for an autopsy and then it will be handed over to his relatives.

The official said he was shifted to solitary confinement after the Bannu jail break, when hundreds of militants stormed the central jail in the early hours of April 15, 2012 and freed more than a hundred prisoners.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2012.