The distraught family of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who was brutally assaulted in a Lahore jail last week, returned home via Wagah Border today after doctors in Pakistan reportedly indicated that he was clinically dead.

Raj Kumar Verka, Vice Chairman of the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes, said in Amritsar that he spoke to Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur who told him that doctors have told her that Sarabjit was brain dead.

Meanwhile, Sarabjit's lawyer Awais Sheikh told a news channel from Lahore that he will file a new petition in Lahore High Court today seeking permission for Indian doctors to examine him.

Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur is also seeking an appointment with the UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to brief her about Sarabjit Singh’s condition and to request her to press the Centre to ask Pakistan to handle the case more sensitively.

Sarabjit Singh, 49, was admitted to a Lahore hospital in a critical condition after a vicious attack on him by fellow prisoners at the Kot Lakhpat Jail April 26th. He has been on ventilator support ever since.

The government had earlier appealed to Pakistan for Sarabjit's release even while a medical board in Pakistan said that he would continue to get treatment in Pakistan and not shifted out.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi had asked Pakistan to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view on Sarabjit