Time-bound enquiry into attack on Pak prisoner in JK jail: Omar

The enquiry into attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay in a Jammu jail will be conducted in a time-bound manner, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today.

"It is going to be a time-bound enquiry," Abdullah told reporters on the opening of the Civil Secretariat here as part of the Darbar Move practice.

The Chief Minister was responding to a question on the steps taken after the attack on Sanaullah at Kotbhalwal Jail in Jammu region on Saturday by an inmate during an argument over the death of Sarabjit Singh.

"Certain steps have already been initiated. The jail superintendent and some other jail officials have been suspended (and) an enquiry has been ordered to be conducted by Principal Secretary Home (Department)," Abdullah said.

The Chief Minister said the incident was "extremely unfortunate" and should not have happened in light of the advisory and instructions issued by the Minister of State for Home Affairs Sajad Ahmad Kitchloo to the Prisons Department.

"It should not have happened, more so in light of the advisory that had been put out and the instructions that had been issued by the MoS Home to the Prisons department of the state to ensure that care is taken where Indian and Pakistani prisoners are lodged together," he said.

Refusing to share the initial findings of the probe into the attack on Sanaulla, he said, "While I have information available to me as to the circumstances of this attack, I have learnt a valuable lesson of not sharing initial findings with you because I paid a very heavy price for sharing initial findings of the (2009) Shopian alleged rape case.

"You took those initial findings as if they were final pronouncements on my part, which they were not," he said.

The chief minister said he will wait for the final report of the enquiry and take action based on the report.

He said while the Pakistani prisoner has been shifted to PGI Chandigarh to provide him best possible care, the timely action by the medical staff in Jammu had helped in stabilising his condition.