Indian national Sarabjit Singh, severely injured in a brutal assault last week, has slipped into a "non-reversible" coma and doctors in a hospital here are struggling to save his life, official sources said today.
The deterioration in Sarabjit's condition could lead to "brain death", the sources told PTI.
His measurements on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which indicates the levels of consciousness and damage to a person's central nervous system, had dropped to a "critical level", the sources said.
A source said Sarabjit's heart is beating "but without brain function" because of the extensive head injuries he sustained when he was assaulted by prisoners at Kot lakhpat Jail in lahore on Friday.
Sarabjit is completely unresponsive and unable to breathe without ventilator support.
The sources said the medical board supervising Sarabjit's treatment was not in a position to declare him brain dead without consulting his family and Pakistani authorities.
The sources further said Sarabjit could not be removed from the ventilator without his family's consent and the approval of the Pakistani government.
Sarabjit's wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep Kaur and sister Dalbir Kaur, who went to lahore on Monday to see him, returned to India today.
Yesterday, doctors treating Sarabjit at the state-run Jinnah Hospital said that his condition had further deteriorated though he had not been declared brain dead.
They said his blood pressure was being maintained with support and his chances of survival were very slim.
Sarabjit, 49, sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull, when six prisoners attacked him in jail on Friday afternoon.
He was hit on the head with bricks and has been comatose in hospital since then.
He was convicted of alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.
His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf.
The previous Pakistan People's Party-led government put off Sarabjit's execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
Sarabjit's family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state.
Sarabjit's family returns, accuses govt of not doing enough
Amritsar: Returning from Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh's family today accused the government of doing little for the death-row prisoner battling for his life after a brutal assault and said they would go to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and top leaders.
The family, which crossed over to India after meeting 49-year-old Sarabjit, who is comatose in a lahore hospital after last week's attack in jail, said his life can be saved if the Indian government puts pressure on Pakistan to shift him to this country or abroad for better treatment.
The family will travel to Delhi and meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and urge them to help save Sarabjit's life by taking necessary steps.
"I will tell the Prime Minister with folded hands that I have doubts about the treatment being given to Sarabjit in Pakistan," Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur told reporters here.
"I am disappointed with the government. The Prime Minister should resign as he is not able to bring back an Indian citizen.You failed to protect your citizen...They (Pakistan) got freed (Pakistani citizen Dr Khalil) Chishti and you (India) released their other prisoners," she said.
Sarabjit's wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam and Swapandeep Kaur and sister Dalbir crossed over into India from lahore through land border. The family had gone to Pakistan on a 15-day visa on Sunday, two days after Sarabjit was attacked in lahore's Kot lakhpat jail.
Dalbir demanded that Sarabjit be brought to India immediately and given proper treatment.
Claiming that if he receives the right treatment he will be able to give an account of what happened to him in Pakistan prison, she said the assertion that Sarabjit is brain dead is wrong as he can move one of his hands and right eye and that his body is warm.
"I want the government to immediately step in. I want to bring him back. If Malala (Yousafzai) can be treated abroad, why not my brother. I have doubts about the treatment they are giving to him, but I have full confidence in the doctors back home," Kaur said.