Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh's counsel on Saturday appealed to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to either pardon him or commute his death sentence to life imprisonment, three days after the Supreme court dismissed his appeal against the capital punishment.
Burney, who is a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, said that 'with so many facts in favour of Sarabjit and so little to justify the death sentence awarded to him, it seemed Sarabjit's biggest crime may have been his Indian nationality as no unbiased court would ever sentence a man to death in such a weak case'.
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.
Following the hanging of Afzal Guru, Congress MP and grandson of late former Chief Minister Beant Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Monday demanded the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the convict on death row for assassinating Beant Singh.
During his visit to India, Burney is expected to meet senior officials, including the ministers for home affairs and external affairs, and human rights activists in an effort to secure the release of all Pakistani prisoners who had completed their sentences.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the execution of two death row convicts in Karnataka scheduled for Thursday even as one of them allegedly attempted to commit suicide in jail.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on accused the government of failing to bring death row convict Sarabjit Singh, who is jailed in Pakistan, back home and suggested the Manmohan Singh dispensation adopt an "aggressive and offensive" attitude with the neighbouring country.
Pakistan has reportedly executed three death-row prisoners, convicted for the 1998 hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker.
Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, claimed that his account was hacked as he was delivering a speech at a party office in West Bengal's Murshidabad district when the social media post was made.
The Delhi government has set up a medical board to examine the health condition of death row convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who has been admitted in a Delhi hospital for the last two years. Top Delhi government officials said the medical board, comprising a number of senior doctors from renowned hospitals, is expected to submit the report next week.
The government on Wednesday said mercy petitions of 20 death row convicts, including Afzal Guru, are under various stages of consideration and that the Constitution does not specify any time limit within which a decision should be taken.
A Pakistani medical board completed the autopsy on the body of Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh, who died early on Thursday, after being comatose for almost a week following an attack by other prisoners at a Lahore jail.
Sarabjit's murder will certainly add bitterness in relations and serve as a setback to efforts to promote people-to-people ties between the two countries, says Sushant Sareen
The Pakistan government will continue to facilitate the "early completion of all formalities and hand over the mortal remains of the prisoner to the Indian High Commission at the earliest possible", said a statement from the Foreign Office.
India is ready to provide full medical assistance to death row convict Sarabjit Singh, lying in coma in a Lahore hospital after a brutal assault, the government said on Monday.
Senior officials in the Research and Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau are convinced that the attack on Sarabjit Singh, the Indian death row prisoner in Pakistan, was planned by Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence.
The Pakistan High Commission in Delhi has issued 15 days 'gratis visa' to Sarabjit's wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Poonam, Swapandeep Kaur and his sister Dalbir Kaur to meet the Indian prisoner who is in "deep coma" and put on ventilator support
The prime suspect in the attack on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh had quarrelled with him a few days ago but Pakistani authorities at Kot Lakhpat Jail did not bother to take notice of the incident, official sources said Friday.
Indian national Sarabjit Singh, currently on death row in a jail in Pakistan, on Friday suffered a head injury and was admitted to a hospital after he was attacked by a fellow prisoner. Sarabjit was admitted to the state-run Jinnah Hospital after being attacked within Kot Lakhpat Jail, TV news channels quoted officials as saying.
It took India and the Indian Army to show to the world that enough is enough and to challenge the neighbourhood bully, he said.
With the Supreme Court on Friday dismissing death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's plea that he should not be sent to the gallows, the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government are hoping the verdict will stem the raging debate over the hanging of 2001 Parliament House attack accused Afzal Guru.
The family was shocked to know that their advocate Rana Abdul Hamid, whom they had trusted like a messiah for Sarabjit's release, backstabbed them by "deliberately avoiding to appear" in the Supreme Court.
Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict on death row in connection with the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has said that he did not want anyone to defend him.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday said his government will take all possible legal steps pertaining to death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana. "My government has been taking advice from legal experts. All possible legal steps will be initiated pertaining to Rajoana's case," he told reporters. On Friday, the Sikh clergy directed him and Shiromani Guru Prabhandhak Committee head Avtar Singh Makkar to make efforts to save Rajoana.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to address the 'shortcomings' in a bill brought out to facilitate reviewing the case of Indian death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav, saying the proposed law does not create a mechanism to reconsider it as mandated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Widow of forest brigand Veerappan has pleaded that the four associates of her husband, who are on a death row in a landmine blast case, be spared from execution.
The sister of Sarabjit Singh, the death row prisoner languishing in a Pakistani jail, on Friday met President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention for his release and demanded that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad visit him in the prison to check on his health.
It was taken up for hearing after Pathan moved an application last month for pressing the bail plea "in view of the threats" faced by him in prison.
Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row in a Pakistani jail, is unlikely to benefit from the government's proposal to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment as he was convicted for a terrorist act.Only those who were not involved in crimes like terrorism, bombings and spreading sectarian hatred could benefit from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's recent announcement about asking President Pervez Musharraf to commute death sentences to life imprisonment.
Sarabjit Singh, the death row convict in Pakistan, has claimed that there was a threat to his life in jail. Sarabjit, who is currently lodged in Kot Lakhpathrai Jail of Pakistan, has expressed the fear for his life in a letter addressed to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Appealing for peace between India and Pakistan amidst tension on the borders between the two neighbours, family members of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan said it would not affect his release.
Pakistan on Friday stayed the execution of Sarabjit Singh. The hanging has been stayed till further notice.
Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, currently on death row following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990, is hopeful that his fresh mercy petition will get a "favourable decision" from President Asif Ali Zardari, his lawyer said on Thursday.
India on Wednesday requested Pakistan to release death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh after Islamabad in a midnight twist said it had taken steps for the release of another Indian prisoner named Surjeet Singh who has been jailed for three decades.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will see files pertaining to mercy petitions of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru and six others in death row after the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
Amid separatist slogans and "honouring" of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, the 28th anniversary of Operation Bluestar to flush out militants from Sikh holy shrine the Golden Temple, was on Wednesday observed at Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat, an event from which Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal kept away.
They all seem to forget that the Music Academy is as much an independent institution as T M Krishna is an individual musician. In drawing those red lines for the Academy management, they do not even seem to recognise that they too have crossed a red line themselves, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Mann, who visited the Amritpal Singh's house in Kotli Kalan village in Mansa district on Monday, handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to his family, according to an official statement.
Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh died in a Lahore hospital in the wee hours on Thursday after being comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by other inmates of a high-security jail, officials said.
Sarabjit Singh's family on Wednesday accused the Indian government of doing little for the death row prisoner, who is battling for his life in a hospital in Lahore after a brutal assault inside the jail where he had been incarcerated. The family crossed over to India after visiting 49-year-old Sarabjit, who is comatose in a Lahore hospital after last week's attack.
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