Nayar notice on death of Khalid

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, March 23: Veteran journalist and former high commissioner of India in London Kuldip Nayar has filed a petition before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an inquiry into the death of Pakistani national Khalid Mehmood.

Mehmood, 35, had come from Lahore in Pakistan to watch an India-Pakistan cricket match in Kanpur in April 2005. He was arrested in 2006 and lodged in a Gurgaon jail for overstaying his visa. He died on February 12. His body was handed over to the Pakistani authorities on March 10.

Mr Nayar filed his petition before the NHRC on March 21. In his letter to the NHRC chairman, Mr Nayar said that the NHRC should look into the circumstances in which Mehmood died, particularly the charge that his death was because of police torture.

"There are conjectures about how he died. One is that his death was in police custody at a jail in Gurgaon due to torture. He might have died a natural death but the entire episode has come in the spotlight because of furore in Pakistan," Mr Nayar wrote.

"If he died an unnatural death, it must be enquired into. The NHRC must find out how it happened ... whether he was tortured," he told this newspaper when contacted on Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, a preliminary probe conducted by the Haryana police has found that Khalid Mehmood was suffering from chronic liver disease and died due to medical problems. "The internal inquiry by jail officials and magisterial probe have established that Khalid Mehmood, alias Azad, died due to chronic hepatitis and rupture of blood vessels in liver," Haryana director-general of prisons, Dr John V. George, said. A detailed report would be available after inspector-general (prisons) M.S. Mann completes his probe, he added.

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Stranded tourists rescued

Gangtok, March 23: Armymen of the Black Cat division rescued 102 tourists who were stranded during their visit to Nathu-La pass and adjoining areas due to inclement weather. The tourists, along with their 15 vehicles, were stranded at Nathu-La pass and Thegu due to heavy snowfall, on March 21 evening, an Army release said on Sunday.

The soldiers rescued the tourists, took them to their camps and provided them food and warm clothes, besides arranging for their overnight stay. (PTI)