Motive was to kill Sarabjit, say doctors

Refuting the theory put up by Pakistani authorities that Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was fatally injured in a "scuffle" of prisoners, Indian doctors who conducted a second autopsy on him Friday said that the brutal assault was with the "motive to kill".

"The main motive was to kill the person. The face of the skull was completely smashed. Rather it was in two pieces. He died from massive head injuries," Gurjit Singh Mann, head of a medical panel of the Amritsar Medical College which conducted the second post-mortem examination after Sarabjit's body arrived in India, told media here.

He said that the injuries on Sarabjit were inflicted with "heavy blunt weapons", including bricks.

Asked if only two people could have attacked Sarabjit, as maintained by the Pakistani authorities, Mann said: "There might be more than two people who attacked him. He was a well-built man."

Mann said the provisional findings of the medical board here suggested that Sarabjit died of head injuries.

The second autopsy was conducted by the medical panel in a government hospital in the sub-division town of Patti, 40 km from here, late Thursday night. The first autopsy was conducted by a Pakistani medical board in Lahore before Sarabjit's body was handed over to India.

Mann said that Sarabjit's body had fractures on the skull, broken ribs and some other injuries.

He said that the Pakistani authorities had only sent a death certificate with Sarabjit's body.

"They have not sent any of the medical reports or course of treatment. No provisional findings of their post-mortem report have been sent. We are awaiting those to give our final conclusive report," said Mann.

About reports that certain organs like heart and kidneys had been removed from Sarabjit's body before it was sent to India, Mann said: "We presume that these were removed as standard procedure to send the viscera for examination. We will try to find the exact cause of death."

Mann said that there were inconsistencies in what the Pakistani authorities were saying about Sarabjit's cause of death.

The Pakistan government had claimed that Sarabjit was injured in a "scuffle" with two fellow prisoners and it was not a pre-meditated attack to kill him.

Sarabjit's family gave its go ahead for the second post-mortem examination after his body arrived in India Thursday evening. The family said they had no trust on the findings of the post-mortem examination done by the Pakistani medical board.

Sarabjit died in Lahore's Jinnah Hospital early Thursday following fatal injuries in an attack on him by fellow prisoners inside Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail April 26.