Expressing concern at the attack on one of its nationals lodged in a jail in Jammu, Pakistan on Friday asked India to ensure the safety and security of all its citizens being held in prison.
“We have learnt with deep concern that Sanaullah, who was serving life imprisonment in a jail (in Jammu & Kashmir), was attacked this morning and as a result has received grievous injuries,” Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said.
“We would also remind the Government of India of its responsibility in ensuring the safety and security of all Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian jails,” Chaudhry said.
Chaudhry said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has sought “immediate consular access” to visit Sanaullah. The Indian Government should take “all measures to ensure that Sanaullah receives the best medical treatment available, investigate the matter thoroughly and punish the perpetrators of this atrocity”, he added.
Chaudhry described the attack on Sanaullah as an “obvious retaliation to the death of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh” and said it was “condemnable”.
Indian death row convict Sarabjit died yesterday of severe injuries sustained in an attack by other inmates of lahore’s Kot lakhpat Jail on April 26. He had been comatose for almost a week after the brutal assault.
His family says he was the victim of mistaken identity and had mistakenly strayed across the border in an inebriated state. Pakistani rights activists too had called for the reopening of his case.
Punish everyone responsible for Sarabjit’s death: Media
Islamabad: The murder of Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistani jail has the potential to impact bilateral relations and authorities must get to the bottom of the affair and punish everyone responsible for his death, the Pakistani media said on Friday.
News of the brutal attack on Sarabjit in lahore’s Kot lakhpat Jail last week and his death yesterday figured on the front pages of most Pakistani dailies on Friday.
Sarabjit died of cardiac arrest after being comatose for nearly a week following the attack by other prisoners on April 26.
The front page report in the The Express Tribune said: ‘After spending 22 years, eight months and three days in a Pakistani prison Sarabjit Singh returned to India on Thursday not to be reunited with his family, but to be laid to rest.”
An editorial in The Tribune, titled ‘Sarabjit Singh’s tragic end’, said, “It is not enough to just go after the prisoners who attacked him but the jail authorities must be dealt with an iron hand as well.” Sarabjit’s safety and well-being was the responsibility of the Pakistani State, it said.
The Tribune warned that the incident could affect relations between India and Pakistan.
“In order to avoid a diplomatic row, it is hoped that the government will conduct a proper inquiry,” it said.
Though it was not clear whether the attack was pre-planned, it was a “matter of grave concern that an Indian prisoner, whose lawyer had repeatedly warned of serious threats to his life, was beaten to pulp in a Pakistani prison”.
A “transparent investigation” should focus on the role of jail authorities so that they can be “taken to task”, the editorial said.
Following the hanging in Delhi of Afzal Guru over a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, several rights groups and Sarabjit’s lawyer had asked Pakistani authorities to increase his security.
The News, in its editorial, said the “long-drawn-out story of Sarabjit Singh has ended in tragedy” though his execution was postponed several times thanks to a campaign for his release.