'Sarabjit's condition deteriorating in Pak prison'

Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, on death row in a Pakistan jail, may die there as his health is deteriorating each day, his sister claimed on Thursday.

Dalbir Kaur said that Sarabjit's lawyer Awais Sheikh informed her over phone from Lahore that the physical condition of her brother was deteriorating day by day and multiple ailments like joint pain, insomnia and high cholesterol had crippled him.

Sarabjit, lodged in Kotlakhpatrai jail of Lahore, may die inside the prison if needful was not done right now, she told PTI.

Kaur said he had slipped into depression, which further demoralised him, as he was lodged in the "unhygienic solitary cell". She also claimed that the jailer had stopped Sheikh from visiting Sarabjit and a petition has been filed seeking court's intervention.

Kaur is in Delhi seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram among other leaders in this regard. She urged the Indian government to arrange her visit to Pakistan forthwith as she was keen to visit her brother.

She also demanded that Sarabjit be shifted to a good hospital outside the jail in order to save his life.   

Kaur has visited the prison twice in the last three years to enquire about the wellbeing of her brother.
On March 9, 2006, a two-member Supreme Court bench of Pakistan had dismissed Sarabjit's petition against the sentence for his alleged involvement in carrying out four bomb blasts at Lahore in 1990 that killed 14 people.

He was set to be hanged on April 1, 2008 but the authorities put this off after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sought to examine the issue.