Pakistani Prisoner Dies in Hospital after Attack in Jail

After he was attacked by another inmate in Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week, Pakistani Prisoner Sanaullah Haq died in the hospital overnight, officials said.

Sanuallah died on Wednesday night from renal failure in a hospital in Chandigarh city of India, from serious head injuries he received in an attack by another inmate. According to a senior doctor, his condition was extremely critical.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir states, wrote on twitter, “Although it’s a scant consolation, I’d like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq and my sympathies for their loss.”

The attack, which happened when a row brewed between Sanaullah and a murder convict, occurred on May 3, the day an Indian prisoner was cremated in India after dying from a similar attack in a Pakistani jail.

It will be recalled that Sarabjit Singh, who was convicted for spying in 1991, was attacked with bricks by inmates in Kot Lakhpat  jail in Lahore only a week earlier. The attack on Sanuallah is seen as a form of revenge for the death of Sarabjit in Pakistan.

India Supreme Court said they have been more concerned why such incidents are happening in jails, as the lives of inmates are constantly put in danger. They added that it is a serious matter and can’t be accepted.

Only last week, Pakistan called on India to punish the attacker, saying that the assault was “condemnable”. During the weekend, protests were carried out in Kashmir over the attack on Sanuallah.

New Delhi has announced that the attack is being investigated, and the “guilty will be punished”

US Citizen Sentenced to Jail by North Korea

Pae Jun-Ho, a US Citizen known in the country as Kenneth Bae, has been handed down a sentence of 15 years with hard labour by North Korea for allegedly carrying out “hostile acts” against the government, according to the official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday.

Only last week, the North Korean media said that Mr Pae had confessed to committing crimes against North Korea, aimed to overthrow the government. But, Pyongyang did not specify the basis of the crimes allegedly commited by Bae, who is believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent.

“The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for his crime,” KCNA said on Thursday.

He was arrested in November last year as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea’s border with China.

Earlier this week, the United States had urged North Korea to free the detainee on “humanitarian grounds.”

On Monday, deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “The welfare of US citizens is a critical and top priority for this department. We call on the DPRK to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds.”

The sentence comes at a time when there is high tension between North Korea and the United States after the UN expanded sanctions against the communist state in March, in the wake of its nuclear test in February and long-range rocket launch in December.

Do-Hee-Yoon, a Seoul-based activist, told AFP new agency that he suspects Bae was arrested because he took photographs of suffering children in the country in order to appeal for aid outside.

It has been indicated by observers that Pyongyang could use the convicted American as a “political bargaining” chip , as US officials have stood their grounds on the fact that Bae entered the country legally.

This is not the first time North Korea would arrest a US citizen, as they have arrested several others in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytism.

Their releases were strongly initiated by the intervention from high-profile American figures.

In 2009, former president Bill Clinton went on a mercy mission to North Korea, and won the release of US television journalists Laura Long and Euna Lee, who were jailed after wandering across the North-Korea border with China.

Then, in 2010, American national Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the North from China, was freed after former US president Jimmy Carter negotiated his release.

The release of Eddie Yong-Su, a California based business man, who had been detained for apparent missionary activities, was secured by a US Delegation led by Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights and humanitarian issues in 2011.