Lahore: Sarabjit Singh, the Indian who was attacked in a prison in Pakistan where he spent 22 years after being convicted of terrorism, died early this morning at the Lahore hospital after a cardiac arrest.
He was admitted there on Friday with severe brain injuries after a group of inmates hit him on the head with bricks and pieces of a tin. Doctors had warned from the start that his recovery was unlikely.
India had unsuccessfully petitioned Pakistan to let the 49-year-old be sent home for treatment.
It's not clear yet if his body will be sent home to Punjab to his family.
His sister, wife and two daughters, who were given emergency visas to visit him, returned to India on Wednesday afternoon after being told that his coma appeared irreversible.
They said they had been let down by the Indian government.
Now in Delhi, where they planned to meet Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Sarabjit's family has said he should be declared a martyr and wants his body to be given to them so they can perform his last rites. (Read more)
Pakistan has over the years maintained that Mr Singh was a terrorist. He was given the death sentence in 1991 for bombings a year earlier in Lahore and Multan in which 14 people were killed.
His sister who had campaigned for years for his release has said he inadvertently crossed the border into Pakistan and his conviction was a case of mistaken identity.
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