A top Sikh religious leader was improving but remained on life support in the northern Indian city of Amritsar after suffering a massive heart attack, a doctor said.
Priests at the Golden Temple complex of Amritsar, the Sikh religion's most revered shrine, recited prayers for the recovery of Gurcharan Singh Tohra, 80.
Doctors said Tohra's condition was improving but he was still in critical condition and on life support.
"His condition and heart rate has improved. His blood pressure is also normal and he's in a mild conscious state," H.P. Singh, a doctor at Escorts Hospital where Tohra was receiving intensive care, told AFP.
Tohra is the head of the Sikh religion's managing body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which runs Sikh religious and cultural affairs worldwide and is headquartered at the Temple complex.
Sikh authorities said prayer meetings would be held at gurudwaras or temples across the northern state of Punjab Friday for Tohra's recovery. There are some 20 million Sikhs around the world, most whom live in Punjab.
The SGPC is immensely influential among the affluent and powerful Sikh community.
Tohra, besides being the head of the SGPC, is one of the senior leaders of the state's main opposition party, the Akali Dal, which in the 1980s backed calls by Sikh militants for an independent homeland.
Two decades ago, Indian troops crushed a lengthy uprising by the Sikhs that left thousands dead. The Akali Dal now supports closer federalism within the Indian union.
A number of Tohra's colleagues were keeping a vigil at the hospital.