India on Wednesday demanded that Pakistan immediately release comatose prisoner Sarabjit Singh on humanitarian and sympathetic grounds, so that he could benefit from the best available treatment in India.

Responding to a question on Sarabjit Singh, spokesman of the ministry of external affairs Syed Akbaruddin said, "We are concerned at the condition of Sarabjit Singh indicated by reports made available by doctors treating him in Jinnah Hospital in Lahore.

"Our High Commissioner has met the Pakistan foreign secretary and urged the government of Pakistan to immediately release Sarabjit Singh on humanitarian and sympathetic grounds so that he can benefit from the best available treatment in India.

"Alternatively, we have also proposed that Sarabjit Singh should be sent to a third country for proper medical treatment.

"This is not the time for invoking legal and bureaucratic reasons for not taking the right steps to save a human life. We believe that every endeavour should be made to save his life."

The spokesman''s statement came hours after distraught family members of Sarabjit said that they would be on a hunger strike till the Indian government took steps to get him out of Pakistan.