LAHORE/NEW DELHI, May 1:
India has strongly asked Pakistan to immediately release Sarabjit Singh for best available treatment after worsening of condition of the Indian prisoner, who slipped into a “non-reversible” coma at a Lahore Hospital today, saying this is not the time for invoking “legal and bureaucratic reasons”.
India’s request for releasing the 49-year-old Sarabjit – comatose since Friday after he was attacked by other prisoners in Kot Lakhpat Jail – was conveyed by High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal to Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani during a meeting yesterday, official sources said.
There had been “no significant development” since the request was made, the sources said. However, MEA sources said in New Delhi that Pakistan has agreed to India’s request for consular access once a day to Sarabjit.
Pakistani diplomatic sources said they were “positively considering” India’s request to repatriate him.
“We are positively considering the Indian request to repatriate Sarabjit Singh to India,” a diplomatic source told reporters. The sources did not give any other details and it was not clear when a decision on the issue would be made by the Pakistani Government.
The move came hours after New Delhi announced that Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal had sought the immediate release of Sarabjit during a meeting with Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani.
The request for releasing 49-year-old Sarabjit – comatose since Friday after he was attacked by other prisoners in Kot Lakhpat Jail – was conveyed by Sabharwal during the meeting held yesterday.
Ministry of External Affairs sources said in New Delhi that Pakistan has agreed to India’s request for consular access once a day to Sarabjit.
In Delhi, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said India was “concerned at the condition of Sarabjit Singh indicated by reports made available by doctors treating him in Jinnah Hospital” in Lahore.
The Indian High Commissioner had met Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary and urged the Pakistan Government to “immediately release (Sarabjit) on humanitarian and sympathetic grounds so that he can benefit from the best available treatment in India”, the spokesperson said.
India has alternatively proposed that Sarabjit could be sent to a third country for proper medical treatment.
“This is not the time for invoking legal and bureaucratic reasons for not taking the right steps to save a human life. We believe that every endeavour should be made to save his life,” the spokesperson said.
Speaking to reporters in Gurgaon, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he was sad over the health condition of Sarabjit. He added that India has sent a proposal to Pakistan and it is now upto Pakistani Government and doctors to decide.
Earlier, official sources in Lahore said Sarabjit had slipped into a “non-reversible” coma and this could lead to “brain death”.
Sarabjit’s measurements on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which indicates the levels of consciousness and damage to a person’s central nervous system, had dropped to a “critical level”, the sources said.
A source said Sarabjit’s heart is beating “but without brain function” because of the extensive head injuries he sustained when he was assaulted by other prisoners on Friday.
Sarabjit is completely unresponsive and unable to breathe without ventilator support.
The sources said the medical board supervising Sarabjit’s treatment was not in a position to declare him brain dead without consulting his family and Pakistani authorities.
The sources further said Sarabjit could not be removed from the ventilator without his family’s consent and the approval of the Pakistani Government.
Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep Kaur and sister Dalbir Kaur, who went to Lahore on Tuesday to see him, returned to India today.
Yesterday, doctors treating Sarabjit at the state-run Jinnah Hospital said that his condition had further deteriorated though he had not been declared brain dead.
They said his blood pressure was being maintained with support and his chances of survival were very slim.
Sarabjit sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull, when six prisoners attacked him in jail on Friday afternoon.
He was hit on the head with bricks and has been comatose in hospital since then.
He was convicted of alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.
His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf.
The previous Pakistan Peoples Party-led government put off Sarabjit’s execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
Sarabjit’s family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated State.
Returning from Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh’s family today accused the Government of doing little for the death-row prisoner battling for his life after a brutal assault and said they would go to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and top leaders.
The family, which crossed over to India from Amritsar after visiting 49-year-old Sarabjit, who is comatose in a Lahore Hospital after last week’s attack in jail, said his life can be saved if the Indian Government puts pressure on Pakistan to shift him to this country or abroad for better treatment.
The family said they will travel to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and urge them to help save Sarabjit’s life by taking necessary steps.
“I want to tell the Prime Minister with folded hands that I have doubts about the treatment being given to Sarabjit in Pakistan,” Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur told reporters here.
“I am disappointed with the Government. The Prime Minister should resign as he is not able to bring back an Indian citizen.You failed to protect your citizen…They (Pakistan) got freed (Pakistani citizen Dr Khalil) Chishti and you (India) released their other prisoners,” she said.
Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep Kaur and sister Dalbir crossed over into India from Lahore through land border. The family had gone to Pakistan on a 15-day visa on Sunday, two days after Sarabjit was attacked in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
Dalbir demanded that Sarabjit be brought to India immediately and given proper treatment.
Claiming that if he receives the right treatment he will be able to give an account of what happened to him in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, she said the assertion that Sarabjit is brain dead is wrong as he can move one of his hands and right eye and that his body is warm.
“I want the Government to immediately step in. I want to bring him back. If Malala (Yousafzai) can be treated abroad, why not my brother? I have doubts about the treatment they are giving to him, but I have full confidence in the doctors in India,” Kaur said.
Kaur said the family was not given a correct update on Sarabjit’s condition. “The doctors never consulted me. Whenever I asked for Sarabjit’s reports, they used to get angry. Doctors repeatedly told me not to argue,” she said.
Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur said she wants to tell the Prime Minister and the Congress chief that the Indian Government can save her husband.
“My husband is in this State as the Government did not take any action. If the Government does not pay attention, if they don’t think the person belongs to India, then they have hurt not only us but India. They should bring back my husband,” she said.
One of Sarabjit’s daughters demanded that her father be brought back. “There was no cooperation from the Pakistani side,” she alleged.
Dalbir Kaur also said that she was tipped off about threats to her life in Pakistan.
“I was told by the forces there that in Pakistan I face a threat. I told them that I will leave these children (Sarabjit’s children) and then come back,” she said.
To another question, she said if the Indian Government’s intentions are honest, they can put pressure on Pakistan and bring back Sarabjit.
A team of Indian doctors accompanied by high ranking Indian officials should be sent to Pakistan, she said.
Kaur said that the attack on Sarabjit could be linked with the polls in Pakistan and that the attack was carried out to benefit some political outfits.
“The accused should be handed over to India, who were those people who handed over the articles used in the crime…Nobody has been suspended, no jail inmate has been held so far. I have learnt from sources that nobody has been arrested,” she said as tears rolled down her eyes.
Kaur also said that Pakistan failed to provide security to Sarabjit inside jail despite threats to his life.
“Our Government had spent Rs 54 crore to ensure (Mumbai terror attack convict) Ajmal Kasab’s security….But the way Sarabjit was attacked by six persons, though they take names of only two, shows conspiracy in the entire incident. We also want to know where have the other four attackers gone missing.”
Sarabji’t daughter Swapandeep Kaur said that it was unfortunate that they had to go and meet him in this condition. “I have hope that papa will get better if the right treatment is given to him. But we have no faith in the treatment given by Pakistani doctors,” she said.
Sarabjit sustained several injuries, including a skull fracture, when six prisoners attacked him in Kot Lakhpat Jail on Friday last. (PTI)
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