A 54-year-old Pakistani prisoner was critically injured after he was attacked early on Friday by a fellow inmate, a court-martialled Indian soldier who is also serving a life term for murder in the high-security Kot Balwal jail on the outskirts of Jammu. The Pakistani, Rana Sanaullah Haq, was shifted to Chandigarh’s PGI Hospital where he is reported to be “stable”.
The assault took place when the inmates were gardening.
Sanaullah Haq was immediately shifted to Jammu’s government-run Medical College Hospital and later flown to the larger hospital in Chandigarh as his condition was “very critical” (severe head injuries and multiple fractures).
His Glasgow Coma Scale was pretty low, hospital superintendent Manoj Chalotra said.
The attack took place a day after Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh died after being assaulted by fellow inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison.
Sanaullah had been in Kot Balwal jail for 17 years. He had sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir from PoK in 1994 to join the “armed struggle to free Kashmir” and is accused of detonating bombs at electric towers and government buildings in the state. A resident of Daluwali, near Sialkot, Pakistan, he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in 2008. There are five cases registered against him across J&K for alleged involvement in terror incidents.
Pakistan has asked India to allow him to return home “on humanitarian grounds” and said India should provide the assistance Pakistan will need in flying the injured man home in an air ambulance.
The Pakistan high commission also sought immediate consular access to Sanaullah, which was granted by India later on Friday itself.