HYDERABAD: The 41-year-old Pakistani national is going to release from the Central Prison, Warangal after seven-and-a-half years. He was caught from a cyber cafe in the city on April 30, 2009, for taking photographs of defence installations.
Mohd Arshad Mahamood resident of 71-F, Jethabhuta Bazar, Khanpur, Khatora village, Raheemyar khan district in Pakistan was sentenced to 14 years in jail. He was released on 16 August 2016 after he was granted remission. But the government ordered prison authorities to keep him in the jail till all the arrangements were made and formalities are completed to send him back to Pakistan.
The Union ministry of home affairs is looking into the affairs of the prisoners like him, DG (prisons) V K Singh said.”We have got a letter from the Union ministry of home affairs about Pakistani prisoners in our jails. We will be writing back informing it about Mahamood.”
According to the list prepared by Aaghaz-e-dosti (beginning of Friendship) which is a joint initiative of India-based Mission Bhartiyam and Pakistan-based The Catalyst of Peace (TCP Mahamood figures at serial no. 177 of Pakistan nationals in prisons in India.
Similarly, another Pakistani prisoner in India, lodged at the Cherlapally Central Prison, is Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas who was sentenced to death on 13 December 2016 for his involvement in the Dilsukhnagar blasts case. The death sentence has to be confirmed by the High Court. According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Rahman is a resident of Chek no. 296, Gojara, Toba Tej Singh, Mustafabad, Punjab, Pakistan. His name figures at no. 179 of the list.
And at no. 176 is Ashique Ali who was arrested on January 27, 2002, in Nizamabad and is undergoing life sentence at the Cherlapally Central Prison. The prisoner was convicted under sections 121, 121 (A) IPC and 14 of Foreigners Act.