AMRITSAR, May 7: Relatives of a Pakistani prisoner savagely attacked in a prison travelled to India on Tuesday to visit the inmate who remained critically ill and in a ‘deep coma’.

Sanaullah Ranjay suffered massive head injuries in a jail in the northern city of Jammu in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.

Ranjay’s brother-in-law and nephew, in India on a 15-day visa, were met by officials of the Pakistani High Commission at Wagah, the land crossing between the two countries.

They told reporters at Wagah, 29km from the northern Indian city of Amritsar, that they would urge the Indian government to release Ranjay, a convicted murderer, so that they could take him back to their home country.

The relatives were later taken to the city of Chandigarh where Ranjay was airlifted last week to be treated at a state-run hospital.

In a bulletin, the hospital said he remained ‘critically sick’ and in ‘deep coma’.

On Monday Pakistani High Commissioner Salman Bashir visited the hospital.

Ranjay, from the city of Sialkot, was attacked by a prisoner identified as a former Indian army soldier just 24 hours after Singh’s death in Lahore.

New Delhi says 535 Indian prisoners, including 483 fishermen, are in Pakistani jails, while 272 Pakistani prisoners are behind bars in India.—AFP