Indian Death Row Prisoner “Sarabjit Singh” Dead

New Delhi, May 2, IRNA -- Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh died in a Lahore hospital Thursday after being comatose for six days following a brutal assault by other inmates of a high-security jail. ˈI received a call from the doctor on duty (at Jinnah Hospital) at 1 am (1:30 IST) informing me that Sarabjit is no more,ˈ Mahmood Shaukat, the head of a medical board that was supervising Sarabjitˈs treatment, told the PTI. No decision had been made about handing over the body to Sarabjitˈs kin or to Indian authorities, he said. ˈThese matters will be worked out according to the directions from the government,ˈ he added. Meanwhile, officials of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad said they had been informed by officials of Jinnah Hospital about Sarabjitˈs death. Sarabjit, 49, sustained severe injuries, including a fractured skull, when at least six prisoners attacked him in a barrack at Kot Lakhpat Jail on Friday afternoon. Sarabjitˈs wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep Kaur and sister Dalbir Kaur, who went to Lahore Tuesday to see him, have returned to India. The Indian national was convicted of alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990 and spent about 22 years in Pakistani prisons. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former president Pervez Musharraf. The previous Pakistan Peoples Party-led government put off Sarabjitˈs execution for an indefinite period in 2008. Following the rapid deterioration in Sarabjitˈs condition, New Delhi had requested that he be immediately released so that he could be treated in India or a third country. Pakistan had said it was ˈpositively consideringˈ the request to repatriate Sarabjit./end