Islamabad/Lahore/Amritsar, April 28 (ANI): Even as Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh continues to remain in deep coma in Lahore”s government-run Jinnah Hospital, the Pakistan Foreign Office has said that doctors at the medical facility are trying their level best to revive him.
It maybe recalled that on Friday afternoon, Sarabjit Singh was viciously attacked by six Pakistani prisoners and inflicted with severe head and torso injuries.
While the emergency ward where Sarabjit Singh is being treated is under strict security, there are unconfirmed reports that two retired Indian judges will visit Lahore”s Kot Lakhpat Jail to assess and ascertain facts relating to the assault on the Indian prisoner.
There are also Indian television channel reports that Pakistani authorities are now denying consular access to Indian Embassy officials at the hospital. Further details of this latest development that could adversely affect ties between the two countries are awaited.
On both sides of the subcontinental divide, protests have been staged over the treatment meted out to Sarabjit Singh in the jail. Protests are reportedly being staged against government inaction on the matter.
Four members of Sarabjit Singh”s family will travel to Pakistan on Sunday to meet the death row convict who is battling for his life in Lahore after being brutally assaulted by jail inmates.
The Pakistan High Commission in Delhi has issued 15 days ”gratis visa” to Sarabjit”s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam, Swapandeep Kaur and his sister Dalbir Kaur to meet the Indian prisoner.
Meanwhile, local MLA and National Commission of Scheduled Castes vice chairman Raj Kumar Verka, who personally secured the visas of the four family members, said, “Pakistan have assured to extend the visas by another 15 days.”
He said the Pakistan High Commission has assured that adequate security would be provided to the family members from the moment they reach Wagah border on Pakistan side through Attari.
“The family would be provided vehicles with heavy security to facilitate them to reach hospital where Sarabjit is undergoing treatment,” Verka said.
Retired Justices KS Gill and MA Khan and their Pakistani counterparts, all members of India-Pakistan Joint Judicial Committee of Prisoners, had visited the Karachi jail on Saturday as part of an exercise to meet Indian prisoners, see their conditions and prison records and whether their release could be expedited.
A senior home ministry official was quoted by the media, as saying that the panel is scheduled to visit Lahore”s Kot Lakhpat jail within a day or two to see the conditions of Indian inmates. The retired jurists will also visit the Rawalpindi jail. (ANI)