The body of a Pakistani prisoner killed in India’s Jaipur Central Jail was handed over to Punjab Rangers at the Wagah-Attari border by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday.

The deceased’s family was present at the border to receive his body. Punjab’s additional home secretary, retired Captain Fazeel Asghar, was also present as a representative of the Punjab government, reports the dawn.com.

He will be laid to rest in his home town Daska in Punjab’s Sialkot district, according to his brother.

The prisoner, identified as Shakirullah, was beaten up by inmates and died on February 20. The release of his body comes after 12 days of his murder.

According to Shakirullah’s family, he was arrested in 2003 after mistakenly crossing the border.

Pakistan had lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani High Commission seeking clarity from Indian authorities regarding the incident.

The Foreign Office in a press release on February 21 said that they had been informed that Shakirullah had sustained injuries following a ‘scuffle’ between fellow inmates in the television room of the jail, ‘which proved fatal’.

The FO noted that as per some Indian media reports, Shakirullah was lynched.

‘It is incomprehensible how a ‘scuffle’ between prisoners in an established Government set up was allowed to escalate to the extent that Mr Shakirullah sustained fatal injuries,’ the statement said.

According to The Hindu, the deceased was undergoing life imprisonment after his conviction in a terror-related case in Jaipur in 2017.

Shakirullah reportedly received serious head injuries caused by a blunt object after an ‘altercation’ with other inmates, the publication added.

The release of the deceased prisoner’s body comes a day after Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Abhinandan Varthaman — who was captured by Pakistan after his MiG 21 Bison aircraft was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet — was handed over in a gesture of peace to India at the Wagah border.

There are 537 Indian prisoners in Pak­i­stani jails, whereas 347 Pak­is­­tanis are languishing in Ind­ian prisons, according to the lists exchanged by the two countries on New Year’s day.