Islamabad:
Pakistan has granted second consular access to attacked Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh after initially refusing to allow Indian diplomats to meet him. Sarabjit is battling for life at a hospital in Lahore after being brutally attacked in jail by a group of prisoners on Friday.
Here are the latest developments in this story:
Doctors treating Sarabjit at the state-run Jinnah Hospital say that he has shown "no sign" of improvement and his chances of survival are "slim". The 49-year-old is in deep coma after suffering a severe head injury.
Sarabjit's family, who visited him in the hospital on Sunday, says that he was beaten with iron rods. "Doctors say he needs a miracle," his sister Dalbir Kaur told NDTV. The prisoner's family has also requested the government to help move Sarabjit out of Pakistan urgently. (Watch)
The government has said it will do all it can to ensure Sarabjit is sent back to India "on humanitarian grounds". We have done it in the past and the matter has been taken up at every level," Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told NDTV. (Read)
India had earlier sought regular access to the prisoner after Pakistan declined further consular access, saying it was allowed for a single meeting only since the hospital is now being deemed a sub jail. The diplomats had visited Sarabjit late on Friday night.
Sarabjit was assaulted at the Kot Lakhpat Jail, where he has been lodged since 1990, on Friday evening reportedly by six prisoners in his cell. They reportedly attacked Sarabjit with bricks and a blade. (Read: How Sarabjit was attacked)
Two prisoners have been booked for attempt to murder. Four jail officials, including the warden, have been suspended.
Sarabjit's family has alleged that that the attack was premeditated and that jail authorities were involved. (Watch)
They also claim that they had about a threat to Sarabjit's life to the Indian government earlier this year. "Sarabjit warned us he would be attacked... he told us prisoners were threatening him...government told us they will talk to Pakistan... why didn't they react after the threats?" Ms Kaur told NDTV.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the attack on Sarabjit, saying it was a "very sad incident."
Sarabjit, 49, is on death row in Pakistan, which accuses him of being responsible for bomb blasts that killed 14 people in that country 23 years ago. His family claims that he crossed over to Pakistan from his border village in Punjab in a drunk state in 1990 and had nothing to do with the blasts he is accused of.
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