Pak prisoner dies in India after revenge beating
CHANDIGARH; 09, May 2013: Sanaullah Haq, a convicted Pakistani rebel jailed in India died on Thursday in hospital after being beaten by another inmate in an apparent revenge attack for the death of Indian terrorist prisoner Sarabjit Singh, threatening already fraught relations between the two nations.
The death of Haq, also known as Sanaullah Ranjay, came a week after Singh died in Pakistan.
"Although it's scant consolation I'd like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq & my sympathies for their loss," Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir where Haq was imprisoned, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Pakistan, which is due to hold an election on Saturday, demanded an investigation into Haq's death and said the attack was "a matter of deep concern." Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said Haq's body will be returned to Pakistan.
Haq, 64, had been in and out of Indian jails since 1989 for spying and "subversive activities," a senior Indian police officer said. He was badly beaten last week in the prison gardens by a jailed Indian soldier, the prison superintendent said at the time, in an apparent revenge attack for the similar, fatal beating of Sarabjit Singh, the convicted Indian terrorist who died in Pakistan.
Singh was given a formal funeral, including a 21 gun salute, by the government of Punjab in his home town close to the border with Pakistan.
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