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Pakistan has 51 Indian prisoners
and ashes of 21 others

As many as 51 Indian nationals involved in cases ranging from illegal border crossing to sabotage in Pakistan have been incarcerated in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, reports said in Islamabad on Friday.

"Ashes of 21 cremated Indian prisoners are also lying in the Kot Lakhpat jail for the last many years due to the controversy between Indian and Pakistani immigration authorities over their identity," a Pakistani daily quoted officials as saying.

"The jail authorities say they are not to be blamed for this callousness as the dead men's own countrymen have refused to accept them as one of their own," it said.

Kot Lakhpat Jail Superintendent Mian Farooq told the daily that they were not at all responsible for the apathy as there was no legal remedy for the Indians who died in custody.

"We are guardians of the bodies and the ashes. We cannot take any step without prior instruction from our high-ups, which would come when Indians take any step in this regard," he said.

The ashes now rest in urns at the Kot Lakhpat jail as that of 'prisoners of uncertain nationalities'.

PTI

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