Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah is dead

Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay who was hospitalised here after being attacked in a Jammu jail last week died Thursday morning due to multiple organ failure, doctors 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.

The Pakistani was in deep coma ever since he was flown in here from Jammu last Friday. He was serving life imprisonment at Jammu's Kot Bhalwal Jail. He was attacked May 3 by an Indian prisoner.

Pakistan High Commission spokesman Manzoor Memon said in New Delhi that Pakistan was "in grief and shocked" at the death of Ranjay.

"We will request the Indian government to facilitate return of his body to Pakistan," Memon told IANS.

The information regarding his death has been given to the central government, PGIMER officials said.

Ranjay had developed jaundice and other internal infections Tuesday, doctors said. The post-mortem examination would be conducted later Thursday.

Two members of Ranjay's family had arrived here Tuesday from Pakistan. They had appealed to the Indian government to repatriate him to Pakistan.

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.

Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir had visited PGIMER Monday to see the Pakistani prisoner.