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Amritsar/Lahore:
The condition of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh,
admitted to a Lahore hospital after being brutally assaulted by
fellow inmates, continued to be critical Saturday, even as his
family demanded Pakistani visas to visit him.
Sarabjit Singh is in a coma, He is being treatment for head
injuries in Lahore's Jinnah Hospital. He was brutally beaten with
bricks and plates by fellow prisoners in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat
prison Friday.
A separate room has been temporarily converted into an ICU for
Sarabjit Singh's treatment.
Sarabjit Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur, who has been spearheading the
campaign for his release from Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison, and his
wife and two daughters, arrived here Saturday morning from their
hometown Bhikiwind, 50 km from Amritsar.
The family members met Raj Kumar Verka, vice chairman of the
National Commission for Scheduled Castes, to demand that their
request for visas to Pakistan be submitted with the Pakistan High
Commission in New Delhi.
"We want to be with Sarabjit in this difficult time. He is all
alone. We don't even know what his condition is. We are getting
reports only through news channels and his lawyer," Dalbir Kaur
told IANS.
Dalbir Kaur herself had taken ill Saturday morning while meeting
Verka, and had to be examined by a doctor after she complained of
uneasiness and chest pain.
"She has high blood pressure (110/160), chest pain and breathing
difficulty. I have advised her rest. We are monitoring her
health," the doctor treating her said.
Sarabjit's family members, including his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and
daughters Poonam and Swapandeep, were with Kaur.
In Lahore, authorities set up a medical board to treat Sarabjit
Singh, a media report said.
"A high-powered medical board has been constituted to treat the
patient," Mahmood Shaukat, the principal of Allama Iqbal Medical
College, told Dawn.
Shaukat said Sarabjit's condition was "critical".
The police in Lahore have registered a case of attempt to murder
against two prisoners, Aamir and Mudassar, who viciously attacked
him, a media report said.
Shocked by the murderous assault on Sarabjit, a sobbing Dalbir
Kaur alleged that Sarabjit had apprehended such an attack, and he
had earlier received threats from fellow prisoners.
"Some prisoners had been threatening him. It was a conspiracy, he
was deliberately attacked. Why was he not protected... I want to
go to Pakistan immediately," she said.
"If our government had taken steps (earlier), this attack would
not have taken place. I had met the home minister (Sushilkumar
Shinde), (minister of state for external affairs) Preneet Kaur and
all others with letters mentioning that Sarabjit Singh could be
attacked. No one did anything, and now the attack has taken
place," she said.
Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney, who has been pleading
for clemency to Sarabjit Singh, said to a news channel from
Karachi: "The attack looks suspicious. Someone could be behind
this. No bricks or other material can reach the place where
Sarabjit had been kept. This must be thoroughly investigated".
Officials of the Indian High Commission arrived in Lahore, 50 km
from here, to know about Sarabjit's condition.
Sarabjit Singh has been on death row in Pakistan since 1990 after
being convicted by Pakistani courts for bomb blasts in Lahore and
Multan, which left 14 people dead.
Sarabjit's family claims he is innocent, having inadvertently
crossed into Pakistan in August 1990 in an inebriated state, only
to be arrested there.
Police in Pakistan however claim that Sarabjit Singh, known as
Manjit Singh, was involved in terrorist strikes.
In Sarabjit's hometown Bhikiwind, and in Amritsar and Patiala,
people have been gathering to protest the vicious attack.
The assault on Sarabjit Singh comes a few months after the death
of Indian prisoner Chamel Singh in the same Kot Lakhpat jail,
after he was allegedly assaulted by jail staff.
Chamel Singh, in his 60s, was serving a five-year term for
espionage and died at the Jinnah Hospital Jan 15.
During an autopsy done on March 13 -- nearly two months after his
death -- marks of injury had reportedly been found on the body.
The body of Chamel Singh was returned by Pakistan last month.
His family alleged he was killed in the prison, but no probe was
carried out by Pakistani authorities.
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