Islamabad/New Delhi:
Pakistan is said to be positively considering the Indian request to repatriate Sarabjit Singh to India, Pakistani diplomatic sources have told PTI. However, this has not yet been conveyed to the Indian government and the sources did not confirm when Islamabad would make a decision.
Indian government sources on Wednesday said that the Pakistani government had agreed to India's request for daily consular access to Sarabjit Singh and Indian officials who visited Sarabjit say there is no change in his condition.
The Indian death row prisoner is in a coma and battling for life at Lahore's Jinnah Hospital, after he was brutally attacked by fellow prisoners last week. Doctors attending to him said on Tuesday that his condition had deteriorated but denied reports that he was brain dead.
India has appealed to Pakistan that Sarabjit should be immediately released on humanitarian and sympathetic grounds and sent to India.
Alternatively, India has also proposed that Sarabjit be sent to a third country for proper medical treatment, a Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that "this is not the time for invoking legal reasons for not taking the right steps to save a human life."
Meanwhile, Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, who returned from Pakistan on Tuesday said, "He is still alive. His body parts show some movement. Please save him. Bring him back to India for treatment. Take him abroad (for treatment). Please send Indian doctors to examine his condition. Just do something."
After crossing the Wagah border along with Sarabjit's wife and daughters, Ms Kaur also expressed disappointment at the Indian government's efforts on behalf of Sarabjit and said, "I am very disappointed. The Prime Minister should quit. He is unable to protect an Indian citizen."
Sarabjit has been on death row in Pakistan since 1991, after he was convicted for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Pakistan's Punjab province in 1990. His family claims that it is a case of mistaken identity and that he was picked up after he inadvertently crossed over to Pakistani territory.