SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday offered “sincere apology” to the family of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, who died in a Chandigarh hospital six days after being attacked in a Jammu jail.
Omars apology came within hours of the death of the Pakistani prisoner who was injured after being attacked in Kot Bhalwal jail in an apparent tit-for-tat assault, prompting Islamabad to demand an international probe into the heinous crime.
“Although it’s scant consolation, I’d like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah and my sympathies for their loss,” Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.
52-year-old Sanaullah, who was serving life sentence at Kot Balwal Jail in Jammu, was grievously injured in an attack by an inmate on Friday last. He died Thursday morning at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.
Earlier, doctors treating Sanaullah said he died of multiple organ failure after suffering severe head injuries in last weeks attack.
In a statement, the hospital said Ranjay had been declared dead at around 7:00am.
He had multiple organ failure due to severe head injury. The team of doctors headed by Prof YK Batra tried their best to revive him, it said.
Ranjays death comes exactly a week after Sarabjit Singh, an Indian who was being held in Lahores Kot Lakhpat prison after being convicted on espionage charges, died as a result of a savage assault by inmates.
Omar Abdullah’s tweets come a day after the Supreme Court frowned on the failure of the J&K government to anticipate the possibility of Sanaullah being attacked in the jail in the wake of the death of Sarabjit Singh.
“You must have visualised that if something has happened in Pakistan, you should have taken precautions. You cannot allow rule of law to be compromised. Such incidents compromise rule of law,” a bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Kurien Joseph had said while hearing a PIL, seeking direction to the government to repatriate Sanaullah Ranjay to Pakistan.
Omar Abdullah also promised to fix the responsibility.
“While the inquiry will fix responsibility for any dereliction of duty, the fact that this happening at all is a matter of great regret,” Omar said.
Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the SC notice as indictment of the government.
The SC reprimand on the issue is a clear indication of state governments failure to protect Pakistani prisoner in the jail, said PDP spokesman Naeem Akhtar.
Describing the attacks on Sarabjit Singh and Sanaullahs as tit for tat incidents, Akhtar said, These two incidents should prove a turning point in the Indo-Pak relations. Such barbaric treatment to two prisoners has caused immense damage to the entire region, he said.
Ranjay was arrested in 1996 and charged with involvement in a bomb blast at Katra near the Hindu shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in 1994 which left 10 people dead.
He was serving life term in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu when he was assaulted by a fellow inmate last week, purportedly in retaliation to the murderous attack on Sarabjit Singh in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.
PAKISTAN SEEKS INTERNATIAL PROBE:
Pakistani officials said they would not be satisfied by an Indian inquiry into the extra-judicial killing, calling instead for an international-level investigation.
This is an extra-judicial killing of an innocent citizen of Pakistan right under the noses of the Indian jail authorities, a Pakistani spokesman said.
We have demanded an inquiry of international level to find out the culprits and expose the connivance.
PRISONERS BODY REACHES HOME:
The dead body of the Sanaullah Ranjay arrived in Pakistan on Thursday, Express News reported. His body was taken to his hometown of Sialkot where the body will be taken through a medical process at the Allama Iqbal hospital.
Arrangements were being made to carry out a postmortem to determine the cause of death and the extent of injuries that Sanaullah had suffered. A medical report will be issued shortly afterwards, the report said.
A large number of people turned up to receive his body in Sialkot. Some of the people held rose petals to shower his casket with. Others staged a protest over his murder.
New Delhi says 535 Indian prisoners, including 483 fishermen, are in Pakistani jails, while 272 Pakistani prisoners are behind bars in India. Pakistan though estimates there are between 500 and 600 prisoners in Indian jails, including fishermen and civilians.
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