ISLAMABAD, March 13: India has accused Khalid Mehmood, a Pakistani national who died in an Indian jail, of being a spy and has advised the Pakistan government and media against politicising his death.

“Sensitive documents were recovered from Mr Mehmood’s possession, which he was carrying to Delhi to deliver to some persons who were travelling to Pakistan by Samjhauta Express,” the Indian High Commission said in a statement issued here on Thursday. It dismissed as disinformation reports which appeared in the media following the repatriation of the prisoner’s body. The statement, however, did not provide a convincing explanation about the cause of Khalid Mehmood’s death.

The statement came in response to Pakistan’s call for an explanation about the circumstances in which Mr Mehmood had been arrested without intimating Islamabad and about his mysterious death in jail.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq had said on Wednesday that Pakistan was shocked and angered at the death of Mr Mehmood and had asked the Indian external affairs ministry to have the matter thoroughly investigated and share the outcome.

The Indian High Commission said the man had gone to India on a four-day cricket visa in April 2005. But he went missing there instead of returning to Pakistan. He was apprehended by Faridabad police on May 17, 2006, with sensitive documents, it said. He was booked under Foreigners Act, Passport Act, Official Secrets Act and the Indian Penal Code as per ‘the standard practice’. Later, he was presented in a court and he had been an under-trial prisoner in Gurgaon jail since May 25, 2006, it said.

Rejecting Pakistan’s assertion that India had violated international diplomatic norms by not notifying the arrest to Islamabad during his detention, India said that, currently, neither country officially notified the other when its nationals were arrested.

Challenging Pakistan’s position that it was unaware of his presence in Indian jail, the statement said it was strange that Mr Mehmood’s family had not brought to the government’s attention the fact that he had been missing for almost three years.

“Someone must explain why he disappeared and what the real purpose of his travel was, since he did not return to Pakistan with hundreds of other fans,” it said.

Blaming Pakistan for the delay in the repatriation of the body, it said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi had been informed immediately about the death on Feb 12. The request for repatriation came on March 5 and the body was handed over to the family of the victim on March 10 at Wagah border.

Without mentioning any disease the prisoner suffered from, it gave the names of hospitals where he had been under treatment since December last year. The statement only mentioned the symptoms as abdominal distension.