Sarabjit Singh, the Indian who was attacked in a prison in Pakistan where he spent 22 years after being convicted of terrorism, died early this morning at a Lahore hospital after a cardiac arrest.
The 49-year-old was admitted there on Friday with severe brain injuries after a group of inmates hit him on the head with bricks and pieces of tin. Doctors had warned from the start that his recovery was unlikely; he was comatose and on ventilator support.
An autopsy will be conducted today at the Jinnah hospital where he died at 12.45 am.
His family has requested that his body be given to them and that he be given "a martyr's funeral". Indian officials are in touch with Pakistan to get Sarabjit's body back to India for last rites. The Indian High Commissioner is expected to meet the Chief Minister of the Punjab Province in Pakistan soon.