A Pakistani prisoner was badly beaten in an Indian jail on Friday in apparent retaliation for an fatal attack on an Indian spy prisoner in Pakistan whose death has led to widespread anger and strained already fraught ties between the neighbors.
Sanaullah Haq was being treated for severe head injuries in the intensive care ward of a local hospital in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which borders Pakistan and has seen serious territorial disputes between the two nations.
“He was rushed to Jammu Medical College Hospital in critical condition as he had suffered severe head injury in the attack. We are making arrangements for critical care ambulance to shift him to Chandigarh or New Delhi for treatment,” said Rajni Sehgal, superintendent of the Kotbawal jail where the attack happened.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the incident was “condemnable” and called on India to punish the attacker. India’s foreign ministry said it regretted the attack and promised to give consular access to Haq once his condition stabilized.
Sehgal said Haq had spent 17 years in Jammu prisons on murder charges for militancy related crimes. Sehgal said Haq was hit with a farming tool in the prison garden by a fellow prisoner in an argument over the death of the Indian prisoner who died in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh. His attacker was a court-martialed member of the Indian army.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the partition of British-ruled India in 1947, although they began a peace process in 2004. They remain deeply suspicious of each other.