KARACHI: Three Russian inmates in a prison at Pakistan’s shipbreaking coastal city of Gaddani killed a female jail official last night, officials told Arab News on Tuesday.
“The Russian women who were shifted to the prison from Quetta to provide easy counselor access to their country’s diplomatic mission in Karachi killed warden Zoya Bint-e-Yahya Imrani for her religious beliefs,” police officer, Naveed Alam, said while ruling out any attempt of jailbreak.
The accused women were identified as Khadija Bint-e-Abdullah, Zainab and Ayesha Bint-e-Musa.
Police have registered a case against them under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and kicked off investigations.
Sharing their preliminary findings, Alam said the inmates had religious differences with the warden and thought the jail official was “an infidel.”
Gaddani, which lies some 50 kilometers west of Karachi, is a coastal city in southwestern Balochistan province with the world’s third largest shipbreaking yard.
Rehmatullah, the official investigating the case, said Imrani was deployed at the prison barrack of Russian inmates and was strangled at night while she was sleeping.
The facility currently has 11 female inmates: Five of them belong to Russia, one hails from Chechnya, and the rest are Pakistani citizens.
“These women along a teenage boy were arrested last year for illegally entering Pakistan. They were later shifted to Gaddani prison from Quetta’s district jail for easy counselor access,” said the police officer.
Imrani, a resident of Gaddani, had been working as lady warden at the facility since 2017.
“She was the sole breadwinner of her family that included an ailing father and two young brothers,” the official added.
Russian inmates kill jail official in Pakistan prison
Russian inmates kill jail official in Pakistan prison
- The women who allegedly committed the crime were arrested last year for illegally entering the country
- Police claim the jail warden was killed due to religious differences
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
