Pakistan's caretaker Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney has appealed to President Pervez Musharraf to convert the death sentence of Indian national Sarabjit Singh to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.Burney sent an appeal for mercy to Musharraf on Wednesday to convert the death sentence of Sarabjit into life imprisonment on humanatarian grounds, as he has already spent 17 years in jail which is more than life imprisonment.
The Pakistan government on Wednesday deferred by 30 days the execution of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who was set to be hanged on April 1 following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990. President Pervez Musharraf deferred the execution of Sarabjit by 30 days after the Indian government made a formal appeal for clemency yesterday, sources in Pakistan's Foreign Office said.
A day after its volte-face on the release of Sarabjit Singh, Pakistan on Wednesday went on a damage control mode saying there was no move to free the Indian prisoner and scotched speculation of pressure from army on the government.
Referring to Musharraf's comment on clemency, Kasuri said, "He did not give a direct reply. He said I am a man of mercy."
Police on Saturday registered a case of attempted murder against two prisoners for brutally assaulting Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is in a "deep coma" in a Lahore hospital. Official sources told PTI that the FIR against prisoners Amer Aftab and Mudassar was registered following a complaint from Assistant Superintendent Ishtiaq Ahmed Gill of Kot Lakhpath Jail.
The Punjab government on Thursday announced an assistance of Rs 1 crore for the family of Sarabjit Singh, who died in Pakistan following a murderous assault in a jail there, and declared a three-day state mourning.
Reports about the suspension of several Pakistani jail officials after the brutal assault on Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh last week have turned out to be an eyewash as authorities are yet to take action against anyone in Kot Lakhpat Jail.
She has also renewed her visa request with the Pakistan High Commission, which had earlier rejected her application.
Amidst appeals for clemency for Sarabjit Singh by his family and human rights activists, hundreds of students in Lahore took to the streets demanding that the Indian death row prisoner not be pardoned. The demonstrators termed former Pakistani human rights minister Ansar Burney, who has sent a mercy petition on behalf of Sarabjit to President Pervez Mushrraf, an Indian agent. The students marched in the city on Friday and sought withdrawal of all moves to pardon Sarabjit.
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'.
The kin of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Lahore jail, on Sunday expressed gratitude to the Pakistan government for proposing to President Pervez Musharraf that all death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment.The family will be making an application in the Pakistan High Commission on Monday for the permission to meet Sarabjit in jail.Kaur said former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney has promised that he will appeal to Musharraf.
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh -- who has been on death row in a Pakistani jail for over 20 years -- could not meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari during his visit to Ajmer Sharif where he offered a chaddar and prayed for peace in the Indian subcontinent on April 4.
The Punjab government on Wednesday shifted six police officials, including the senior superintendent of police Jalandhar (Rural), in Jalandhar district, where radical preacher Amritpal Singh escaped the police dragnet earlier this month.
It is not destiny, but the Pakistan government which claimed the life of Sarabjit Singh, according to a resident of Ahmednagar, who spent time with him in Lahore jail, and was released last year.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has indicated that his government would consider if Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh could be pardoned. He said Sarabjit's case was being reviewed by the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Law-Justice and Human Rights. Gilani added that he has advised President Pervez Musharraf to stop the execution of Sarabjit. Sarabjit, accused of terror attacks in Lahore in 1990, has been languishing in Pakistani prisons.
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh who is on death row in a Pakistan prison, made a vain bid to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday during his stay at a hotel in Mohali
Indian lifter Sarabjit Singh broke four national records as the two-day weightlifing selection trials, part of the test event for Commonwealth Games 2010, concluded at Jawahar Lal stadium on Sunday.
A case of mistaken identity turned a stirring occasion into an international embarrassment for the Pakistan government when the tardy release of an Indian national Surjeet Singh was wrongly reported by Pakistani media as the release of Sarabjit Singh, an alleged Indian spy who is languishing in a Pakistani jail for over two decades now despite repeated calls for his release by the Indian government.
Sarabjit Singh's mercy plea, requesting that his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, has been forwarded to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. The plea was moved after the Supreme Court rejected Singh's petition challenging the death sentence awarded to him earlier.Sarabjit, who is currently languishing in the Kot Lakhpat jail, is a resident of Amritsar. He was arrested near the Kasur border in Pakistan in August 1990.
The execution of Sarabjit -- sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990 -- was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf so that the new government could review his case. Sarabjit was originally set to be hanged on April 1.
A Pakistani court has sought a report from the interior ministry in response to a petition seeking the release of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, currently on death row following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990.
Foreign office spokesman Naeem Khan said Sarabjit's family will be issued Visas according to law.
Baliram Thakur, 72, and Shila Devi, 62, residents of a village in Bihar's Sitamarhi district, are extremely worried these days following the brutal killing of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistan jail.
Dalbir had an appointment with Sonia, but could not meet her as she was busy.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may accept New Delhi's request of clemency on humanitarian grounds for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national on death row for carrying out multiple bomb explosions in the Islamic nation's Punjab province, in which 14 people were killed in 1990. A Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) official said the President could consider pardoning Singh. "If that happens, it will be purely on humanitarian grounds," the Nation quoted him as saying.
Social activist Swami Agnivesh told rediff.com on Sunday that he will join the ongoing dharna of Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh -- who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for over 20 years -- at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday.
What is more frightening is the level of radicalisation of Pakistani society, where jail authorities conspire with other convicts to kill an inmate on death row. This represents a dangerous trend in Pakistan's society of delivering instant justice, says Alok Bansal.
Leading rights activist Ansar Burney, who was the Human Rights Minister in Pakistan's caretaker government, will visit India next month to meet the family of Sarabjit Singh and gather any evidence about his innocence and to trace Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Burney said he would go to India on April 2 at the invitation of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
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.
What should have been the release of an Indian death row prisoner has turned into an 'international embarrassment' for the Pakistan government following the mix-up over the identity of two Indian nationals currently in a Pakistani jail.
In his earlier petitions to the courts, including the Supreme Court, Singh said he inadvertently crossed the border and later caught by police and wrongly implicated in the cases.
"When I tied Rakhi on his arm, he was emotionally charged and said that he had nothing to give me. First half an hour was spent in crying. Then he told us how a fake case had been foisted on him by the Pakistani police and a judgment was delivered with the help of purchased witnesses. He hoped that we would meet again soon at his village," Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur told rediff.com, hours after she learnt that Pakistan government had decided to commute his death sentence.
Over 100,000 Indians, including former test cricketers and chief justices, have signed a mercy petition addressed to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seeking clemency for Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani prison.
The sister of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian on death row in Pakistan following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks, on Friday urged the Pakistan government to send a special team to India to re-investigate his case.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday condoled the death of Sarabjit Singh, hailing him as a "brave son of India", and attacked Pakistan for not heeding to pleas for taking a humanitarian view on this issue after the deadly attack on the Indian national in a Lahore jail.
"If the government is convinced that he is innocent and that he has been a victim of mistaken identity, it should move ahead to save him," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.
Two officials from Indian High Commission can meet him on Tuesday.
"We are trying our best to get his body as soon as possible. The Ministry of External Affairs is in touch with the Pakistan government," he told reporters after meeting Sarbajit's sister Dalbir Kaur and other family members in New Delhi.
Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani jail, appears to be a case of mistaken identity, former Pakistani minister and United Nations Human Rights Council advisory committee member Ansar Burney said in Chandigarh on Friday.After collecting evidence in the shape of a video CD and copy of an FIR from the family members of Sarabjit, Burney said, "Prima facie it appears to be a case of mistaken identity.
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