Mohammad Asghar: Notorious killer incited assassination attempt on UK pensioner in Pakistani jail

The British pensioner shot while on death row in a Pakistani jail was attacked after a notorious murderer incited a police guard to try and kill him, an inquiry has found.

A preliminary investigation carried out by officials at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi concluded that last month’s attack on Mohammad Asghar, 70, was instigated by fellow prisoner Mumtaz Qadri, the policeman facing the death penalty for murdering Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.

A report by the AFP said officials believe the prison guard who shot Mr Asghar, Mohammad Yousuf, had spent more than two weeks guarding Qadri, who killed Mr Taseer three years ago as he left an Islamabad cafe. The inquiry found that Qadri had readied two additional guards to kill other prisoners who were convicted of blasphemy and are on death row in the jail.

“The accused was deployed outside the cell of Mumtaz Qadri during the incident and he had confessed to taking religious lessons from him,” a jail official, who was not identified, told AFP.

Mr Asghar, who is from Edinburgh and whose family says he has a history of mental illness, was shot by a guard who managed to smuggle a pistol into what was supposedly a high-security area of the jail.

Mr Asghar was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to death in January this year after a being convicted of blasphemy. The conviction followed an incident when a tenant presented letters he had written saying he was a prophet. During his trial, his family tried to present evidence that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were introduced under British rule and then tightened during the years of military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Campaigners say the laws have become increasingly abused

The previous government had sought to reform the laws but that process came to a halt following the assassination of Mr Taseer in January 2011. He was among those who had spoken out in favour of reform and had championed the case of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010 after an argument with a neighbour. Mr Taseer had even gone and met her in jail and spoken with her family.

Mr Qadri, who was among Mr Taseer’s close protection team, admitted carrying out the killing and said he had done so because of the politician’s position on the blasphemy issue. When he was brought before the court for his trial, a number of lawyers showered him with petals and cheered.

The plight of Mr Asghar has become of increasing concern for his family and British officials. Prime Minister David Cameron has expressed his worries about the case.

The investigation by jail officials in Rawalpindi will heighten concerns about staff being radicalised by hardline inmates in Pakistan’s overcrowded prisons.

There was no immediate response to inquiries from the authorities at the jail.

A lawyer for Mr Asghar said they could not confirm whether Qadri had been behind the attack as did not have access to him or their client.

However the lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said: “We had raised our concerns back in January that Mohammad Asghar was being held in the same jail as Mumtaz Qadri.”