Pakistani terror convict Sanaullah Haq, who was critically injured in an attack on him by an Indian jail-mate at Kot-Bhalwal Central Jail here on Friday morning, has been flown to Chandigarh and admitted at the super-specialty PGI treatment.
Sixty-four-year-old Sanaullah Haq of Daluwali village, Sialkot, had been arrested in 1994 for alleged involvement in several terrorist acts. Sentenced to life terms in two terror cases, he has been lodged at Kot Bhalwal Jail since 1999. Vinod Kumar of Uttarakhand, an Army man sentenced to life in a murder case by a military court of inquiry in Leh, allegedly attacked Mr. Haq when the two quarrelled over a “trivial issue.”
Critically hit in his head, Mr. Haq was evacuated and admitted to Government Medical College Hospital. Medical Superintendent Dr. Manoj Chalotra said that the patient was examined and treated at the Intensive Critical Care Unit. He was later flown to PGI Chandigarh in an air ambulance for specialized medical treatment.
Sources said that Mr. Haq was airlifted when his Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) touched 3 on a scale of 3 to 15 – considered extremely low. GCS is a scale for measuring the level of consciousness, especially after a head injury, in which scoring is determined by three factors: amount of eye opening, verbal responsiveness, and motor responsiveness.
The Jail Superintendent, Rajni Sehgal, said: “Vinod and Sanaullah clashed when the prisoners were setting out for the day’s labour. Sanaullah was critically hit.” She said that out of the 400 prisoners at her jail, 21 were Pakistani nationals. Most of them were members of Harkat-ul-Ansar, Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Al-Badar Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Informed sources said that Mr. Kumar threw a brick on the Pakistani prisoner and then hit his head with a pick mattock — a digging tool with a head having a point at one end and a transverse blade at the other.
Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, told The Hindu that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took serious note of the “extreme negligence.” “It’s a serious matter as the lapse happened even after an advisory had been issued to put in place special measures to ensure the safety of Pakistani prisoners in the wake of the attack on Sarabjit Singh in Lahore. Principal Secretary Home has issued the order of an inquiry and the Jail Superintendent has been attached,” Mr. Kichloo said.
IGP Jammu, Rajesh Kumar, said that a five-member Special Investigation Team has been constituted for a thorough investigation.
He said that the accused, Sepoy Vinod Kumar, was taken into custody for sustained interrogation and an attempt to murder case was filed against him. A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory visited the crime scene and collected evidence.
Out of seven terror-related offenses that he had been charged with, Mr. Haq had been sentenced to a life term for involvement in a bomb blast that killed 10 civilians and left 43 injured in Nagrota, headquarters of the 16 Corps of Army. A TADA Court awarded a life term for another bomb blast in which 7 persons died and 30 more sustained injuries in Satwari area near Jammu Airport.
The article has been edited to correct a factual error about the Glasgow Coma Scale. A patient is assessed against the criteria of the Glasgow Coma Scale, and the resulting points give a patient score between 3 and 15.
