The condition of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, injured in a scuffle with another inmate in a Jammu jail, remained critical today but his metabolic parameters were settling down even as India granted permission to Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir to visit Chandigarh to see him.
"His metabolic parameters are now settling. The arterial blood gases are satisfactorily maintained on moderate oxygen flow. He continues to be on ventilator. His blood pressure continues to be maintained with three inotropic drugs," a medical bulletin issued by doctors attending on him said in Chandigarh.
"He continues to be critically sick and in deep coma, almost in the same status as yesterday with no neurological improvement," it said.
Meanwhile, government sources said in Delhi that permission has been granted to the Pakistan High Commissioner to meet 52-year-old Sanaullah, who was airlifted from Jammu to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Friday.
Bashir had earlier made a request to visit Chandigarh and meet the prisoner.
"Bashir's request was considered and he was granted permission this evening," the sources said.
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 injured during a scuffle with another inmate in high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and was immediately shifted to Government Medical College Hospital and later rushed to PGIMR in Chandigarh in an air ambulance after doctors said his condition was critical.
Sanaullah was assaulted a day after the death of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who was brutally attacked by six fellow inmates in a Lahore prison.
The Pakistan High Commission said in a release that the doctors have conveyed to them that they will wait 48 to 72 hours trying to stabilise the patient before taking a decision on any major medical intervention.
The release said that Sanaullah's status/condition is unchanged since his arrival in the ICU and he continues to be critically sick.
A three-member team of Pakistan High Commission officials met doctors of the PGIMER to have first hand account of the patient's health today, officials said.
The Pakistani officials remained in the PGIMER for about 35-minutes, they said.
A surgeon among the attending team of doctors said Sanaullah's condition was extremely grim and there was not much chance that he would be able to pull through.
A member of the Pakistani official team also said that the PGIMER doctors had provided them with a very pessimistic prognosis of Sanaullah's recovery.
Sanaullah is being looked after by a team of doctors, including neurosurgeons, in the intensive care unit of PGIMER.
PGIMER in its update on the his condition had last night said, "the patient had metabolic alterations and coagulation abnormalities, which are being taken care of by concerned specialists and these are gradually being controlled, though they are not totally normal. His blood pressure had been going down, so a third vasopressor had to be added (yesterday)."
PGIMER said Sanaullah was earlier checked at the Jammu hospital by neurosurgeons, "who detected head injuries with a large fracture. CT scan showed multiple contusions with severe brain oedema (brain capillaries damaged due to head injury)."
Two prison officials, including Jail Superintendent Rajni Sehgal, had been suspended by the Jammu and Kashmir government in connection with the assault.