A day after Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was assaulted inside Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, his family has been granted visa to visit him in hospital. The Pakistani High Commission in Delhi also said it will extend all possible help to facilitate their travel to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Sarabjit continues to be critical and in an intensive care unit (ICU). Two prisoners have been charged and two officials suspended following the attack on him.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the attack and called it a “very sad incident”.
Condemning the attack, Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh said, “Our deputy high commissioner has lodged a protest with the Pakistan Foreign Office. We want an explanation as to how it happened. Our government tried its best to get him freed. We condemn the incident. It is Pakistan’s responsibility to ensure Indians in their jails are safe.”
The police on Saturday registered a case of attempted murder against two prisoners for brutally assaulting Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who was in a “deep coma” in a hospital in Lahore.
FIR against prisoners Amer Aftab and Mudassar was registered following a complaint from Assistant Superintendent Ishtiaq Ahmed Gill of Kot Lakhpath Jail. The two men were booked under sections 324 (attempted murder) and 334 (causing severe injuries) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Sources said doctors are waiting for Sarabjit to stabilise before conducting further tests. Sarabjit has suffered injuries on his head and swelling on his face.
Doctors were unable to perform surgery on him on Friday because of extensive internal bleeding caused by a severe head injury. “No surgery can be performed till his condition stabilises,” a source said.
Meanwhile, Indian officials have met Sarabjit Singh in Lahore.
There is tight security outside Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital where Sarabjit is being treated.
In 2012, he faced threats from groups after the release of fellow prisoner Surjit Singh.
In the aftermath of the Afzal Guru hanging, the threat to Sarbjit’s life increased, his family claimed.
“Sarabjit sent me letters through his lawyer, saying that he was being threatened. He said people told him he was alive when Afzal was executed in India, so we are going to attack you. I told the home minister and the external affairs minister about the situation. I want to go to Pakistan tomorrow morning,” his sister Dalbir Kaur said.
Human rights activist Ansar Burney, who plans to head to Lahore to meet Sabarjit, raised serious concerns saying it was a suspicious attack. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sought an explanation from the government as to why no heed was paid to Sarabjit’s family’s complaints. “Indian government has to explain why nothing was done even after the family wrote to them that Sarabjit is being threatened in the Pakistani jail,” BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
Meanwhile, a petitioner, Sarfarz Hussain, moved a writ petition in the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry on Saturday and requested the apex court to form a high level medical board for treatment of Sarabjit.
The petitioner also requested that the case be referred to Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) for further inquiry and all officials involved be brought to justice without any discrimination.
It has also been appealed to the court that Sarabjit Singh’s imprisonment be revoked and the medical board may be sent along with the victim for treatment, abroad.