Chandigarh:
The body of Pakistani prisoner
Sanaullah Ranjay was handed over to Pakistan today by India after the 52-year-old died due to multiple organ failure at a Chandigarh hospital at 7 this morning. A special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight took off from Chandigarh airport this evening with the body of the prisoner.
"The body was handed over to officials of the Pakistan High Commission and formalities completed at the airport before the flight took off," an official said.
A minor hiccup related to documentation and other formalities earlier held up the plane's departure, scheduled around 5 pm by nearly over an hour, an official source said.
Sanaullah was brought to Chandigarh's Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in an air ambulance in critical condition on May 3, after being hit on the head by a fellow inmate at the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu.
The attack on
Sanaullah happened a day after Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh died in Pakistan. Mr Singh was brutally attacked by six prisoners in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail last month.
Jammu jail authorities said the prisoner who attacked
Sanaullah was close to him and that they had an altercation. But Pakistan called the attack on
Sanaullah an "obvious retaliation" to Sarabjit Singh's death and had demanded his repatriation for treatment at home. The jail superintendent was suspended and an inquiry is on.
In a statement issued this morning, the Pakistan High Commission demanded as "impartial and international probe" into the attack on
Sanaullah and sought the "release of 47 Pakistani prisoners who have completed their jail terms but are still languishing in prison" in India. India has rejected the demand for an international inquiry saying the matter is bilateral.
Offering "sincere apology" to the family of
Sanaullah, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a tweet this morning, "While the inquiry will fix responsibility for any dereliction of duty, the fact that this happening at all is a matter of great regret."
Pakistan's High Commissioner Salman Bashir had visited
Sanaullah at the Chandigarh hospital on May 6. Two of his relatives had arrived from Pakistan on May 7 and visited the prisoner too.
A resident of Sialkot in Pakistan,
Sanaullah was serving a life term. He was arrested in 1999 and convicted under TADA or Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.