BJP demands best treatment for Sarabjit Singh

NEW DELHI: BJP today asked the government to ensure best medical treatment for Indian death row convict in Pakistani jail, Sarabjit Singh, who is lying in coma in a Lahore hospital after being brutally attacked.

"Sarabjit was attacked in a most barbaric fashion inside the jail and government of India ought to have taken steps to emphasise upon Pakistan authorities to give him adequate security after the hanging of Azmal Kasab and Afzal Guru," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.

He charged the government with not taking steps to ensure and pressurise Pakistan to provide adequate security to Sarabjit.

"Now it should demand that Sarabjit should be getting best medical treatment. If it is not available in Pakistan then some alternative arrangements should be made to shift him from that hospital to a better hospital," BJP leader said.

"The immediate concern for all of us is that he must be given best treatment possible," he said.

Sarabjit, 49, sustained several injuries, including a skull fracture, when six prisoners attacked him in Kot Lakhpat Jail on Friday and doctors said his chances of survival are slim.

He was hit on the head with bricks and cut with sharp weapons. He is in a deep coma and on ventilator support in an intensive care unit of Jinnah Hospital.