Pak rights body asks govt to ensure safety of Indian prisoner

An Indian man, serving a three-year sentence in Pakistan for illegally entering the country, faces "threats" to his life in prison, Pakistan Human Rights Commission has said and asked the government to ensure his safety. Hamid Nehal Ansari, 31, a Mumbai resident, was convicted in February in Kohat, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

In 2012, Ansari went missing in Pakistan, where he had allegedly gone to meet a girl he had befriended on the Internet. Authorities admitted last month that he was in army custody and was facing a trial in military courts.

“The former, a young Indian engineer, illegally entered Pakistan because he wanted to help an Internet friend, a young girl, and was arrested in 2012. The authorities denied any knowledge of him for a long time and eventually disclosed that he was tried by a military court and sentenced to three years' imprisonment," HRCP Secretary General IA Rehman said.

He said the Peshawar high court is hearing his petition for the inclusion of the pre-trial period of detention in Ansari's imprisonment, but now concern has been raised about "threats" to his life in prison. "The government must ensure his safety and it will be proper to start preparing for Ansari's repatriation to India," he said. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, 56 cases of enforced disappearances occurred in January 2016.