India offers to aid Pakistan treat Sarabjit

With Sarabjit Singh battling for life in a Lahore hospital, India on Sunday offered medical assistance to Pakistan in treating the prisoner and said it will use this incident as an additional ground to harden its demand for his return.

"We will do the best we can. Right now, there is very little we can do in terms of medical intervention, unless Pakistan seeks any assistance in medical diagnosis," external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said.

Khurshid said India will continue to push very hard to bring Singh back using this incident as an additional ground for persuading Pakistan. He said the decision to get Singh back to India should not be and emotional or political one. "It should be a medical decision," he said.

"We would be willing to cooperate in any way should Pakistan government need any assistance," he said. The minister said the government had made efforts to get him back but "it is really difficult for us to go beyond a point on the issue of this nature".

Khurshid said the government of India will "consistently and constantly" remain engaged to ensure it does the best it can for him. He termed the attack as "extremely unfortunate, distressing and disturbing". "We have got consular access but we are still concerned about his medical condition," he said.