Source: Indian News Line via Wasim Sr
Lahore/Islamabad: After battling for life for more than six days following a brutal assault by fellow inmates inside Pakistan’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh died in a Lahore hospital on Thursday. His body has been shifted to the mortuary for autopsy.
“I received a call from the doctor on duty (at Jinnah Hospital) at 1 am (1:30 IST) informing me that Sarabjit is no more,” Mahmood Shaukat, the head of a medical board that was supervising Sarabjit’s treatment, said.
According to reports, Sarabjit was taken off the ventilator after his condition worsened towards the middle of the night. Security was beefed up around the hospital and the mortuary soon after television channels began reporting his death.
Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad said they had been informed by officials of Jinnah Hospital about Sarabjit’s death.
Shaukat said authorities were yet to decide on conducting an autopsy of Sarabjit’s body. Asked whether the autopsy would be done after getting permission from the government, he said: “At the moment I have no idea.”
No decision had been made about handing over the body to Sarabjit’s kin or to Indian authorities, he said. “These matters will be worked out according to the directions from the government,” he said.
The 49-year-old Sarabjit had 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 was comatose in hospital since then.
“I am sad about his death. It will affect the ties between the two countries. He will remain fighting for justice against the brutal attack on Sarabjit by jail inmates,” Sarabjit’s lawyer Awais Sheikh said.
An extremely sad occasion of shame with great sense of irresponsibility on the part of Jail administration. All such carelessness on the part of responsible people proves that life here is not safe and secure, both neither in jail/death cell nor in open society.In view of this-like situation, it would have been more appropriate, as goodwill gesture, if Sarabjet Singh had been sent back to India with his sister and two daughters.