SIALKOT  -    The grieving heirs of the slain Pakistani prisoner Shakir alias Ilyas (48), who was tortured to death by fellow inmates at Jaipur Jail in India, have urged the Pakistani government to take the matter up with International Court of Justice (ICJ).

They also demanded that the government utilise all diplomatic sources to bring back the victim’s dead body to Daska, Pakistan.

According to the family, Jessarwala-Daska based Pakistani Christian youth Shakir had embraced Islam in 1997 and was given the name of Shakir alias Muhammad Ilyas. In 2003, he mistakenly crossed into Indian territory from Bajwat Sector of Sialkot Working Boundary about sixteen years ago. The Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) arrested him for illegally entering the Indian territory. Shakir alias Muhammad Ilyas had been languishing in several Indian jails for the last sixteen years. Despite completion of three-year long imprisonment, the Indian authorities did not release him for unknown reasons.

Shakir’s uncle Javaid Iqbal Maseeh, a resident of Jessarwala village, Daska, some 25km from Sialkot City, told the media that Shakir’s family became acquainted with his death through TV channels, saying that the concerned Pakistani authorities also confirmed his death in the Indian prison. He said that his nephew Shakir had been languishing in several Indian jails for the last sixteen years as a ‘punishment’ for mistakenly entering the Indian territory. He said that his fellow inmates in Jaipur Jail attacked him and tortured him with stones and bricks till death.

He urged the Pakistani government to take the matter up with International Court of Justice (ICJ). “We have been waiting for the arrival of his dead body from India,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sialkot based human rights activist Mian Fareeduddin Masood expressed grave concerns over the nasty incident. He said that this case should be taken immediately to International Court of Justice (ICJ). He termed it an inhuman act. He said that it was an extra judicial killing of a Pakistani prisoner. He sought speedy justice for the grieving family. He also urged the Pakistani government to make all-out efforts to bring his dead body back to Pakistan.

A large number of people thronged the house of Shakir in Jessarwala village, and they condoled his brutal death with the grieving family. They said that India had taken revenge of Pulwama attack by killing a Pakistani prisoner.