Attari April 28:
Family
members of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is in coma
after a murderous attack on him by fellow prisoners in a Lahore jail,
crossed over to Pakistan on Sunday afternoon and met him in a hospital
in Lahore.
"Sarabjit
Singh's face is swollen, he was beaten by iron rods... He is
unconscious, in a very critical condition... I was in hospital for 10
minutes and spoke to the doctors," his sister Dalbir Kaur told a news
channel. Earlier they were granted visa by Pakistan authorities.
Led
by Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and daughters
Swapandeep and Poonam crossed the Attari-Wagah joint check post on
their way to Lahore, some 20 km from the international border between
India and Pakistan. The family offered prayers at Harmandir Sahib, the
holiest of Sikh shrines in Amritsar, popularly known as Golden Temple,
Sunday morning before leaving for the border, 30 km from Amritsar.
"We
are going there with lots of hopes. We want to bring him back hale and
hearty. His condition is such that there is some fear in our hearts. We
have offered prayers to the almighty to help him recover fast," Dalbir
Kaur said before leaving for Pakistan. She said the family has been
granted visas for 15 days to visit Pakistan. Authorities there have
allowed one member of the family to be with Sarabjit in hospital.
The
Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the family
Saturday evening as a special case after doctors in Lahore's Jinnah
Hospital hospital described Sarabjit's condition as "critical" and "in
deep coma". "We did not want to go to Pakistan in these circumstances.
We are praying that he (Sarabjit) recovers fast. We want to bring him
back to India for treatment," Sarabjit's daughter Swapandeep said.
"We
are hoping that he will recover and we will not have to get our visas
extended," Swapandeep said. She demanded that Sarabjit be shifted to a
better facility. "We are very concerned about his condition. The
authorities should immediately shift him to a good hospital with better
facilities. This (Jinnah) hospital does not have adequate facilities,"
Swapandeep said. Sarabjit, 49, suffered critical head injuries in an
unprovoked and sudden assault by four to five prisoners with bricks and
plates in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison Friday evening.
He
has been on death row in Pakistan since 1990 after being convicted by
Pakistani courts for bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan, which left 14
people dead. Sarabjit's family claims he is innocent, and that he
crossed over to Pakistan in August 1990 in an inebriated state, and was
arrested there. Police in Pakistan, however, claim that Sarabjit Singh,
known as Manjit Singh, was involved in terrorist strikes.
