Dead Indian prisoner in Pakistan yet to be identified: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said it is yet to identity of the Indian prisoner who died in Pakistan.

MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said name of the deceased's appears in the list of Indian prisoners provided by Islamabad as Zakir Ali.

He also mentioned that on two separate occasions, members of an Indian committee comprising of jurists and also a diplomatic counsellor from the Indian High Commission couldn't identify the individual because of his mental ill health.

"We were not able to get information about him, the dead prisoner, the prisoner himself was not in a mental state where he could articulate details about himself and therefore while he figures on that list (of Indian prisoners in Pakistan), provided by Pakistan to us, we were not able to identify his nationality," said Akbaruddin.

Nonetheless, he added efforts were on by the Indian Government to ascertain all details about the dead prisoner.

Earlier, a man named Chamel Singh (40), was thrashed to death by wardens of a Pakistan prison, where he was serving a term for illegally crossing the border and arrested on charges of espionage in 2008.

Another Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh also met a similar fate after being attacked by fellow prisoners in Lahore that resulted in his hospitalization and eventual death.