Four hearing and speech impaired Pakistanis languish in Indian jail

29.02.2016, ISLAMABAD: 

Four hearing and speech impaired Pakistanis have been languishing in a jail in the Indian state of Punjab for years, show records of Pakistan’s Foreign Office. They are among the 28 Pakistani nationals incarcerated in the Amritsar jail on different charges.

While the Foreign Office has verified particulars of 22 Pakistani prisoners, it does not have the names and residential addresses of six prisoners – including the four hearing and speech impaired men. Authorities in both Pakistan and India have so far failed to verify their particulars.

The Foreign Office, however, has records of the charges against these inmates. “Goonga & Behra (deaf and dumb), son of (not known),” is written before a list of charges against the four special persons. In the column for ‘address in Pakistan’, the word ‘unknown’ is written.

The first ‘deaf and dumb’ was booked under FIR No 17/2011 registered on January 28, 2011. He is being held under Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act. IPC’s Section 34 deals with criminal acts ‘done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all’. Under this section, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as ‘if it were done by him alone’.

Section 14 of India’s Foreigners Act of 1946 prescribes penalties to those who remain in any Indian area for a period exceeding the period for which a visa was issued to them. The other three ‘deaf and dumb men’ were booked under FIR No 182/07, 58/07 – the last two in one FIR, all on same charges under 3-34-20 IPC and 14 Foreigners Act.

Another two persons whose credentials are yet to be verified by Pakistan’s interior ministry are Miraj, son of Babimal Walait, resident of Kotri in Sindh, and Chanda Khan, wife of Salman Khan from Karachi. Their complete addresses are available in the documents provided to Pakistani authorities but their names are not included in the list of those whose addresses have been verified.

It is unclear when India provided this information and why it took the interior ministry so long to verify the stated addresses. Miraj was booked in 2012 while Chanda was arrested in 2015, according to their FIR records.

Two other Pakistani prisoners – Fatima Bibi and Mumtaz Bibi – are apparently sisters, who are serving 10-year imprisonment under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985. Fatima Bibi was married to Saifur Rehman, from the Bhulliary area of Gujranwala. She also has a daughter who was born in the jail.