PIA flight takes off from Chandigarh with Sanaullah's body

Deceased was attacked a day after Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner in Pakistan, succumbed to grievous injuries following a murderous assault in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight took off from Chandigarh airport Thursday evening with the body of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay.

Ranjay, who had been hospitalised at Chandigarh's PGIMER hospital after being attacked in Jammu's Kot Bhalwal jail May 3, died Thursday morning following multiple organ failure, doctors said.

"The body was handed over to officials of the Pakistan High Commission and formalities completed at the airport before the flight took off," an official said here.

A minor hiccup related to documentation and other formalities earlier held up the plane's departure, scheduled around 5 p.m. by nearly over an hour, an official source said.

"Sanaullah was declared dead around 7 a.m. due to multiple organ failure. The team of doctors headed by Y.K. Batra tried their best to revive him," a spokesperson of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) said here.

Ranjay, who was critical for the last few days, had suffered renal failure Wednesday. He was in deep coma ever since he was flown in here from Jammu last Friday.

The attack on Ranjay took place a day after Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner in Pakistan, succumbed to grievous injuries following a murderous assault in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail.

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 the Jammu jail.