On life support: No need to shift Sarabjit abroad, says hospital chief

Sister asks for Indian doctors to treat her brother if he can’t be sent home.

LAHORE:

There is no plan to shift Sarabjit Singh abroad for medical treatment, nor is this possibility being considered by the doctors treating him, the Chief Executive of Jinnah Hospital Professor Mahmood Shaukat said on Monday.

“No doctor of the medical board examining Sarabjit Singh has recommended that he should be shifted abroad,” Shaukat said.

Death row prisoner and convicted Indian spy Sarabjit Singh is undergoing treatment in Jinnah Hospital since Friday after he was badly beaten by inmates in Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Terming Sarabjit’s health condition ‘static’, Shaukat said he is still on a ventilator.

“Singh is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and senior doctors are constantly keeping an eye on his condition,” he said.  Another doctor privy to the examination board reports said: “On the Glasgow Coma Scale, the reading of Singh is 3/15 which is very critical.”

He said that even though Sarabjit is on a ventilator, his breathing is not spontaneous; adding that surgical intervention at this point will not be helpful.

After visiting her brother in the hospital, Sarabjit’s sister, Dalbit Kaur said the doctors were withholding information and not revealing how serious her brother’s condition was.

Kaur also asked the government to shift her brother to India.

“If this is not possible then at least allow some Indian doctors to treat him,” she said.

Kaur alleged that in todays meeting she saw her brother’s left thumb blotted with ink, which suggests that authorities have been taking Sarabjit’s thumb prints while he is in a coma.

Meanwhile, Sarabjit’s attackers, Amir and Mudassir, have been detained and jail authorities have imposed restrictions on meeting them.

Sources in the jail said six prisoners were involved in attacking the death row prisoner but only two were nominated in the First Information Report.

Investigation officer Inspector Rehmat of Kot Lakhpat Police Station said he recovered the weapons used in the attack.  The assailants used a two foot long piece of a pipe and a brick to beat Sarabjit, the investigation officer said.

Giving details about the statement of the accused, Rehmat said both the attackers said they had planned to attack Sarabjit for days.

“India executes Muslims like Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru but our government sets Indian prisoners free,” the investigation officer quoted the attackers as saying.

Rehmat added that the accused would not be brought out of the jail for investigation and they would be tried in Kot Lakhpat after being permitted by a judicial magistrate.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has been requested through a writ petition to communte the death sentences of at least 120 prisoners, including Sarabjit, to life imprisonment.

The petition was moved by the Watan Party through Barrister Zafarulallah Khan. The petitioner said the death sentences were given to nearly 120 prisoners including Sarabjit Singh, but these were not implemented for the past 20 years.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.