Sarabjit in ‘deep coma’,family set to go to Pakistan today

Saying they would cross the Attari border tomorrow,Dalbir Kaur said government officials have informed her that the Pakistani government will allow one family member to stay in the Lahore hospital where Sarabjit is being treated.

Sarabjit,49,who was rushed to Lahore’s Jinnah hospital on Friday night,cannot be operated upon till his condition stabilises,doctors attending to him said.

In the first official statement from the Pakistani government on the incident,its foreign office said,“As a result of a scuffle between prisoners at the Kot Lakhpat Jail,Lahore,yesterday,Sarabjit suffered head injuries which rendered him unconscious. Doctors and medical staff at the hospital are working round-the-clock to revive the prisoner,who remains unconscious and on a ventilator.”

In Delhi,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “It is very sad,some inmates attacked him in jail. I think that is a very sad development.”

Singh was hit on the head with bricks,and his neck and torso cut with blades and pieces of a ghee tin. The Lahore police have registered a case of attempted murder against two prisoners,Amer Aftab and Mudassar,both on death row. The duo have been booked under Sections 324 (attempted murder) and 334 (causing severe injuries) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Sources quoted doctors at Jinnah Hospital as saying that Sarabjit’s condition was measured as 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS),which indicates the level of damage or injury to a person’s central nervous system. The GCS comprises tests of eye,verbal and motor responses. The lowest possible GCS score is 3 while the highest is 15.

Two Indian high commission officials were granted consular access to Sarabjit this morning. “The officials obtained access to Sarabjit in the ICU of Jinnah Hospital,Lahore at 2 am,” said MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin. “Doctors attending to Sarabjit informed the Indian officials that he is in coma on ventilator and receiving IV drip,” he said.

While doctors have carried out X-rays,MRI and CT scans on him,they are awaiting stabilisation in condition before conducting further tests,said Akbaruddin.

The assault on Sarabjit comes a few months after the death of Indian prisoner Chamel Singh in the same jail after he was allegedly attacked by some jail officials.

Sarabjit’s lawyer,Owais Sheikh,has alleged that his client had received threats after Afzal Guru was executed in February. Sarabjit was convicted for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.

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.

With tears in her eyes,Dalbir Kaur said the family is constantly praying to Almighty so that Sarabjit could be repatriated to India alive.

In a related development,residents of Bikhiwind village assembled outside Sarabjit’s house and raised anti-Pakistan slogans and burnt effigy representing the neighbouring nation.

The villagers also observed a bandh in protest against the attack on Sarabjit. Activists of Shiv Sena also held a protest in Amritsar on the issue.

(With PTI)