Tit for tat?

Pak prisoner in coma after attack in Jammu jail

Jammu/New Delhi (IANS): A Pakistani prisoner was critically injured on Friday when he was attacked by a fellow prisoner in the high security Kot Bhalwal jail here, police said, a day after Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh died after being attacked in Lahore.

Sanaullah, a resident of Sialkot, was attacked by former Indian Army soldier Vinod Kumar, convicted for murder, following an altercation on Friday morning, a police officer said. The Pakistani prisoner received serious head injuries and was first taken to the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, where doctors said he had slipped into a coma, much like Sarabjit Singh.

Who was attacked in a Lahore jail on April 26 and died on Thursday. He was being taken to Chandigarh for further treatment. India termed the attack as "regrettable" and said "the matter is being investigated and guilty will be punished."

Sanaullah Haq (54) is a resident of Dallowali near Sialkot in Pakistan. He crossed over to India illegally with the help of another accused Kehar, who died during trial.

He was arrested in April 1999 and was convicted of bombing a bus in 1994 near Jammu in which 10 people were killed. He was sentenced to life and had been imprisoned in Kot Bhalwal Jail. He had been in the jail for the last 17 years. Jail sources said Sanaullah had been in the Kot Bhalwal Jail for the last 17 years. He has been booked in eight cases, including murder, and given life imprisonment in two.

Vinod Kumar belongs to Uttarakhand and has been in Kot Bhalwal for six years. He is undergoing life imprisonment for murdering his colleague in Leh. According to sources, both were brought to the jail grounds on Friday as was routine. "They were all talking to each other when all of a sudden some altercation took place between the two and Vinod Kumar hit Sanaullah on the head."

Officials are trying to ascertain whether Sanaullah was attacked with bricks or a shovel handle. The state administration has tightened security in all the 14 jails in Jammu & Kashmir where about 80 Pakistani prisoners are lodged.

Pak asks for immediate repatriation Meanwhile, the Pakistan High Commission here has asked for repatriation of Sanaullah for the purpose of medical treatment on humanitarian grounds. It has also asked for evacuation of Sanaullah by an air ambulance, including assistance in ground facilitation.

Earlier, it had expressed serious concern over the attack and sought immediate consular access to him. "Pakistan High Commission has taken up with the ministry of external affairs the attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah in Kot Bhalwal in Jammu," said a statement.