Sarabjit Singh still on ventilator after attack, family gets visa to visit Pakistan

Amritsar: Four members of Sarabjit Singh`s family have been granted visa by the Pakistan High Commission to meet the Indian prisoner who is in "deep coma" and put on ventilator support after being assaulted by jail inmates in Lahore.

Sarabjit`s sister Dalbir Kaur on Saturday said that the High Commission in Delhi has issued visa to the family and she along with his daughters Poonam, Swapandeep Kaur and the prisoner`s wife Sukhpreet Kaur would be travelling to Lahore. However, she did not say when they will leave for Pakistan. Besides visa to four family members, she said government officials have informed her that Pakistan government has allowed one family member to stay in the Lahore hospital where Sarabjit, whose condition continues to be critical, is under treatment. Last night, Dalbir Kaur had made a strong appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur to do the needful to arrange the visa for Pakistan so that the family could visit Sarabjit, who is on death row in Kot Lakhpat jail. Sarabjit was convicted for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province in Pakistan, that killed 14 people in 1990. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf. His family says he is a victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border. PTI