Amritsar: Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, on
death row in a Pakistan jail, may die there as his health is deteriorating each day, his sister Thursday claimed.
Dalbir Kaur said that Sarabjit's lawyer Awais Sheikh
informed her over phone from Lahore that the physical
condition of her brother was deteriorating day by day and
multiple ailments like joint pain, insomnia and high
cholesterol had crippled him.
Sarabjit, lodged in Kotlakhpatrai jail of Lahore, may die
inside the prison if needful was not done right now, she told reporters.
Kaur said he had slipped into depression which further
demoralised him, as he was lodged in the "unhygienic solitary
cell".
She also claimed that the jailer had stopped Sheikh from
visiting Sarabjit and a petition has been filed seeking
court's intervention.
Kaur is in Delhi seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram among other leaders in this regard.
She urged the Indian government to arrange her visit to
Pakistan forthwith as she was keen to visit her brother.
She also demanded that Sarabjit be shifted to a good
hospital outside the jail in order to save his life.
Kaur has visited the prison twice in the last three years
to enquire about the wellbeing of her brother.
On March 9, 2006, a two-member Supreme Court bench of
Pakistan had dismissed Sarabjit's petition against the
sentence for his alleged involvement in carrying out four bomb
blasts at Lahore in 1990 that killed 14 people.
He was set to be hanged on April 1, 2008 but the
authorities put this off after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani sought to examine the issue.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, September 08, 2011, 22:30