A Pakistan national belonging to the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyeba was allegedly murdered on Wednesday in a brawl with other prisoners at the Central Jail in Jaipur, jail officials said.
A police official said the prisoners fought over the volume of a TV set and hit Shakrullah (50) with a large stone. The police said “three or four” prisoners were responsible for killing the life convict, who is from Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab. A murder case has been registered.
The incident comes amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack in which a car bomb killed 44 CRPF personnel.
“A Pakistani prisoner was allegedly murdered today at the Central Jail. The matter will be investigated by a judicial magistrate and also by the police,” Rajasthan Director General of Police Kapil Garg told PTI.
Inspector General (Prisons) Rupinder Singh said Shakrullah had been lodged in the jail’s special cell since 2011.
Earlier, he and seven others were held in a Punjab jail, accused of radicalising young people. The module operated under the directions of its handlers in Pakistan, Jaipur Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said.
Rajasthan’s anti-terrorist squad had brought the eight accused from Punjab for interrogation in similar charges and booked them under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the official added.
In 2017, the LeT operative was sentenced to imprisonment for life. Srivastava said the fight on Wednesday was over reducing the volume of a TV set in the jail.
Senior administration and police officials rushed to the jail after learning about the death.
Rupinder Singh said the post-mortem will be conducted on the jail premises under judicial supervision.