“His chances of survival are grim,” Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir said on Monday after visiting 52-year- old Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here.
Bashir, who spent 15 minutes at the hospital, said, “We want him to be repatriated to Pakistan. But his condition continues to be critical and there is no way he can be airlifted.”
He further said Pakistan was examining a request from Sanaullah’s family members to allow them to visit the prisoner, whose condition was a bit worse than on Sunday.
“He is getting attention and medial care,” Bashir said in reply to a question whether the three Pakistani diplomats who had earlier visited him were not satisfied with the treatment being given to Sanaullah.
In a medical bulletin, the hospital said: “Sanaullah’s neurological status hasn’t improved. There is metabolic deterioration in the form of fluctuating blood sugar. Serum sodium is, however, under control. Hemodynamic status is bit worse, evidenced by the hike in the dose of vasopressors and the addition of hydrocortisone, both meant to raise blood pressure. Oxygen requirement has increased to maintain the arterial blood gases and the patient continues to be on ventilator.”
Sanaullah, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, is serving a life term after being convicted under TADA provisions following his arrest in 1999. He was attacked in the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and was immediately shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital and later rushed to the PGIMER in an air ambulance.
At 2.45 pm, Bashir reached the hospital from Delhi by road in his ten-vehicle cavalcade under tight security.
The High Commissioner and his officials were briefed about the patient’s status right from his arrival to the present condition, by Prof S N Mathuriya and Prof Y K Batra in the presence of director Prof Y K Chawla and medical superintendent Prof A K Gupta.
On Prisoners of War (PoWs), Bashir said: Pakistan has no PoWs and we had been saying this time and again. A judicial commission from India visited Pakistan jails and did not find any PoWs.”