Sarabjit’s survival chances ‘slim’, family in Lahore
Islamabad stops, then grants consular access after Delhi protests; attackers say they wanted to avenge bombings that claimed 14 lives in 1990
ISLAMABAD / NEW DELHI: Pakistani doctors treating Sarabjit Singh on Sunday said his chances of survival were “slim” as his family arrived in Lahore and visited him at the hospital.
A diplomatic row also seemed to be brewing as Pakistan stopped Indian high commission officials from visiting the Indian convict and New Delhi, in turn, demanded constant consular access. Late at night, the Indian officials were granted access to the patient.
Earlier, Singh’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep and sister Dalbir Kaur crossed over through the Attari border and arrived in Lahore in the afternoon.
A doctor told PTI the family was allowed to see Singh through a window as it was “not good for the patient and attendants to get close to each other”. Doctors briefed the family, telling them Singh was in a deep coma, on life support and in critical condition.
Singh was attacked by at least five inmates in the city’s Kot Lakhpat jail on Friday. He has a fractured skull and cuts on his face and torso from weapons fashioned out of spoons and pieces of tin. His family has demanded that he be sent back to India for treatment.
According to a preliminary report by a senior jail authority, two of the attackers — death row convicts Amer Aftab and Mudassar — have admitted to assaulting Singh with the intention to kill him. They reportedly said they hated the Indian because he was convicted of killing Pakistanis in bombings in 1990. Singh and his family maintain he is innocent and had crossed over in a drunken state.
In Delhi, external affairs ministry sources said its mission in Islamabad has already sent an official request to Pakistan’s foreign ministry for constant consular access.
They also said foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai has issued instructions to provide all help to Singh’s family during their 15day stay in Pakistan.
"All of us are extremely concerned about Singh," said I&B minister Manish Tewari Tewari, rejecting the Opposition's charge that the attack was proof of the UPA's policy failure. BJP president Rajnath Singh demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take up matters with the government in Islamabad.
Pakistan authorities, on their part, insisted they were doing all they could to help Singh and his family.
ATTARI: Claiming that Pakistan’s Jinnah Hospital, where Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh is in a critical condition, lacks facilities to handle such serious cases, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the Indian government to send a panel of specialist doctors to Pakistan to handle the case.
Talking to reporters, commission vice- chairman Raj Kumar Verka said, “We have got inputs from Pakistan that Sarabjit’s condition is very serious and they do not have good enough doctors to treat him. So, the commission has asked the Centre to take up the matter with the neighbouring country.”
He said in case doctors couldn’t be sent to Pakistan, Sarabjit could be brought to India, adding that Pakistani patients often came to this country for treatment.
Verka said the commission was of the view that Sarabjit’s security was not ensured in Pakistan by officials of the Indian home ministry and external affairs ministry.
“So, we have asked the officials concerned to submit an action-taken report to the commission,” he added.