Pakistani Prisoner Dies in Hospital after Attack in Jail

After he was attacked by another inmate in Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week, Pakistani Prisoner Sanaullah Haq died in the hospital overnight, officials said.

Sanuallah died on Wednesday night from renal failure in a hospital in Chandigarh city of India, from serious head injuries he received in an attack by another inmate. According to a senior doctor, his condition was extremely critical.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir states, wrote on twitter, “Although it’s a scant consolation, I’d like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq and my sympathies for their loss.”

The attack, which happened when a row brewed between Sanaullah and a murder convict, occurred on May 3, the day an Indian prisoner was cremated in India after dying from a similar attack in a Pakistani jail.

It will be recalled that Sarabjit Singh, who was convicted for spying in 1991, was attacked with bricks by inmates in Kot Lakhpat  jail in Lahore only a week earlier. The attack on Sanuallah is seen as a form of revenge for the death of Sarabjit in Pakistan.

India Supreme Court said they have been more concerned why such incidents are happening in jails, as the lives of inmates are constantly put in danger. They added that it is a serious matter and can’t be accepted.

Only last week, Pakistan called on India to punish the attacker, saying that the assault was “condemnable”. During the weekend, protests were carried out in Kashmir over the attack on Sanuallah.

New Delhi has announced that the attack is being investigated, and the “guilty will be punished”

Indian ‘Spy’ Dies in Pakistan Prison after Attack

Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national who was sentenced to death in 1991 on charges of espionage, died from his injuries early on Thursday after he was attacked last week by fellow inmates, according his lawyer and doctor.

Singh sustained several injuries when six prisoners attacked him with bricks in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail on Friday. He was in a comatose state for 5 days till his death on Thursday morning in Lahore’s Jinnah hospital.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on his official Twitter page, “The criminals responsible for the barbaric and murderous attack on Sarabjit Singh must be brought to justice.”

He added that the capital would make arrangements to bring his body home for funeral rites, after a failed attempt to negotiate for the treatment of the convicted Indian in India or a third country failed.

The Indian government had initially appealed for Singh to be released on grounds of treatment for the attack he received, as his injuries were grave and of great concern to his government.

Singh was sentenced to death for spying, as well as his role in the 1990 bomb attacks that saw the deaths of 14 people.

While his family had always insisted of his innocence, their mercy petitions were rejected by the courts running during the regime of former President Pervez Musharraf who is currently under house arrest and charged with conspiracy to murder late former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.

Singh’s lawyer, Owais Sheikh, said, “His death was already feared. His condition was more than critical and he had less chances of survival.”

Sheikh had said earlier, that his client had received threats following the execution of a Kashmiri separatist, Mohammed Afzal Guru, who was hanged in February for his role in the deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, and the execution of Mohammed Ajmal Qasab, the only surviving Pakistani in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said, “The authorities have obviously failed to do their elementary duty of providing him [Singh] safety and security.”

The commission has expressed their anger over the attack, describing it as a ‘dastardly act’, and has tasked the government of Pakistan to leave no stone unturned in fishing out the culprits for punishment.