Mohammed Fahad Nadukani, 30, the Pakistani prisoner at Central Prison in Hindalga, who was reportedly on a hunger strike in protest against the attack on fellow national Sanaullah Ranjay in Jammu, has fallen ill and has been admitted in the district hospital for treatment.
Sources said that Nadukani has been on a hunger strike since Wednesday morning and is reluctant to accept food. Nadukani, who fainted at the prison, was rushed to the emergency ward of the hospital on Thursday. Doctors at the hospital advised the jail authorities to admit him to the prisoners’ ward.
Doctors administered medicines to him and said Fahad was responding to treatment. Hospital authorities said the condition of the patient was stable. They added that they are continuing to provide him IV fluids as he was reluctant to take food. Efforts by doctors to persuade him to withdraw the protest have not yielded results.
Arrested
Sources said Nadukani was arrested in 2005-06 in Mysore for alleged terror activities and was lodged in the prison here.
During an inspection of the barracks in the prison, a cellphone was found in his possession and the call records showed that he had made calls to Jammu and Kashmir.
He was kept in a separate cell after the assault on Sanaullah in Jammu.
The cellphone was seized and four jail staff members were suspended for dereliction of duty.
Sources said that the prison authorities allegedly told Fahad that he would meet the same fate as Sanaullah, forcing him to launch the agitation.
All’s not well
All does not seem to be well in the Central Prison, Hindalga, considered one of the most secure prisons in the State. Drugs, liquor and outside food are flowing freely in the prison and inmates (both convicts and undertrials) using cellphones to threaten people outside has become the order of the day, the sources said.
For over a year, the situation inside the prison has turned from bad to worse, with all illegal activities thriving in its premises. Access to outside luxuries to the inmates was shocking and the prison staff were facilitating it. Inmates who did not pay the staff were denied the luxuries, the sources said.
Jail Superintendent Veerabhadraswamy refused to comment on Nadukani’s case, saying he was busy in a meeting. Prison sources, however, said Veerabhadraswamy did not have any scheduled meeting on Saturday.
