Pak sends Kirpal's body with heart, liver missing

ATTARI: Just like with the body of Sarabjit Singh, vital organs are missing from the body of Kirpal Singh, another Indian who died in a Pakistani jail.Just like with the death of Sarabjit Singh in 2013, Kirpal Singh's death last week was also in circumstances that don't quite match with the causes of death cited by Pakistan.Kirpal was lodged next to Sarabjit in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail."My uncle has also given up his life for the nation. As he was the only witness in Sarabjit Singh's death, the Pakistan government feared this revelation (the truth about how Sarabjit died) so they plotted to kill him," Kirpal's nephew Ashwani said on Tuesday.The body of Kirpal, who died on April 11 at Jinnah Hospital, was brought back to India on Tuesday.A post mortem examination revealed that Kirpal's vital organs - like the heart and the liver - were missing.In 2013, doctors in India found that many of Sarabjit's organs - including the heart, gall bladder and kidneys - were missing."Some parts, which are vital for conducting autopsy, were missing," said a doctor after Sarabjit's post-mortem in 2013.Pakistani authorities have attributed Kirpal's death to a heart attack, but family members allege torture and foul play.The body of Sarabjit - who according to Pakistan died after 2 inmates attacked him - bore multiple injuries, indicating that there were more than two persons who attacked him inside the jail, doctors in India said in 2013.Still, a section of experts said that not all organs need to be removed unless they have to be donated, while some experts say that as part of standard medical procedure, Pakistan could keep the vital organs for further testing.Kirpal's family says he was tortured in jail."When I saw my uncle's body, it bore injury marks. He did not die of cardiac arrest. He was tortured to death," alleged Ashwani Kumar, Kirpal's nephew, who received his uncle's body at the Attari-Wagah border after Pakistan handed it over to Border Security Force officials.Kirpal had crossed over to Pakistan on February 29, 1992 and was arrested on charges of carrying out a bomb explosion and spying. He was sentenced to death. Later, Pakistan's high court acquitted Kirpal on the bomb explosion charges but did not rescind his death sentence in the spying case.