Those responsible for the murder of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh will be brought to justice, Najam Sethi, the caretaker chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, Thursday assured Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sahbarwal.
Describing Sarabjit Singh as a "national martyr", Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday said that the Indian death row prisoner, who died in Pakistan, will be given a state funeral.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday attacked the government for not taking concrete steps in Sarabjit Singh's case, saying the attack on the Indian prisoner inside a Pakistani jail reflects the "total failure" of India's foreign policy.
The body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was on Thursday night brought to Amritsar onboard a special Air India aircraft from Lahore, where he died following a murderous assault in a jail.
Bharatiya Janata Party activists on Sunday held a protest demonstration at Attari along Indo-Pak border in Amritsar against the Pakistani government over the death of Sarabjit Singh in a Lahore hospital following a murderous assault on him.
The brutal assault on Sarabjit Singh, who is in "deep coma", was not possible without the involvement of jail authorities in Lahore and Pakistan should take immediate action against the perpetrators of the attack, his family said.
"He (Sarabjit) is a simpleton, who had unknowingly strayed into Pakistan. I have even stayed with him in the same jail," said Mehboob Elahi, former Indian prisoner in Pakistan who was released from the prison in 1996. "I have stayed with him in the same cell at Gujranwala jail. Not for a day or two, but at least a year and a half," 52-year-old Elahi told television channel NDTV.
Opposition parties targeted the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led state government over the law and order situation and demanded that he step down on moral grounds.
After the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the call for execution of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh has grown louder in Pakistan. Tahir Ali reports
Dalbir Kaur, sister of the condemned man, told the PM, 'I am a daughter of Punjab, please save my brother'.
Tape will have no effect on case: Sarabjit's lawyer
A large number of people, including women, have started arriving for the cremation of 49-year-old Sarabjit who succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Lahore on Thursday following a brutal attack in Kot Lakhpat Jail where he was lodged since 1990.
With tears in her eyes, Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur said, "It is difficult for us to believe the Sarabjit Singh has not been released. How can I accept that my brother would not come home yet."
The border village of Sarabjit Singh in Punjab erupted in joy on Thursday following his imminent release from Pakistan with his family calling it a 'relieving' moment and an act of kindness from President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sarabjit Singh's Pakistani lawyers now believe that following the Supreme Court's decision to release Dr Chishti on bail, there are chances of the Indian national getting a pardon from President Asif Zardari who had just returned from Ajmer Sharif, reports Amir Mir from Islamabad
Hanging Sarabjit Singh would be tantamount to murder of humanity as the Indian national had been convicted without any substantial evidence, Pakistan's leading human rights activist Ansar Burney has said. "I cannot allow the government to hang Sarabjit Singh on the basis that he is a non-Muslim and non-Pakistani, and because of pressure from extremist fundamentalist groups," he said. Pakistani authorities have apparently put off Sarabjit's hanging.
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.
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.
Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek on Monday met Indian death-row prisoner Sarabjit Singh at the Lahore's Kot Lakhpath Jail to review his case following the Indian government's appeal for clemency for him.
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.
The statement was made after Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh met Rahul Gandhi on Monday and sought the government's intervention to save the life of her brother. "We appeal to the government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh's case with clemency on humanitarian grounds," Mukherjee said in his one-page statement read out by him soon after Question Hour in Parliament.
Days after the Supreme Court gave nod to Pakistani prisoner Khalil Chishti to visit his country, Press Council Chairperson Justice Markandey Katju has appealed to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to grant freedom to Sarabjit Singh, who is lodged in a jail there. In a letter addressed to Zardari, he said, "The Indian Supreme Court had recently allowed Chishti to go back to Pakistan. I, therefore, appeal to you in the name of humanity to release Sarabjit Singh," he wrote.
Referring to Musharraf's comment on clemency, Kasuri said, "He did not give a direct reply. He said I am a man of mercy."
Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh's lawyer will file a fresh mercy petition before Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday, in the wake of the Supreme Court dismissing his appeal against capital punishment.Owais Sheikh, the new counsel for Sarabjit, said the petition seeking clemency for the Indian national will include a letter addressed to Zardari by the condemned man.
Indian officials will collect Sarabjit's details and his version of his arrest and subsequent detention in\n1990.
Reports from Lahore said the officials had entered the prison where Sarabjit is lodged and the meeting is taking place. The meeting was expected to last for over an hour.\n\n
Surjeet Singh, who was released from a Pakistani jail after 31 years, today said Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh is fine and hoped that he is freed soon.
The mercy petition was rejected by the President after 'thorough consideration' as the allegations against him 'were proved and he was awarded capital punishment by court', official sources said. Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed about 14 people. His family denies he was a spy as claimed by Pakistan and insists he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory.
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.
Pakistani authorities have suspended three senior prison officials over the fatal attack on Indian national Sarabjit Singh inside a jail in Lahore, a week after the brutal incident. The home secretary of Punjab province suspended the three officials from service on Friday for alleged negligence that led to the brutal attack on Sarabjit within Kot Lakhpat Jail.
A Pakistani judge investigating the murder of Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh has appealed to Indian nationals having information about the matter to file written submissions with relevant documents within seven days.
ndian prisoner Sarabjit Singh's sister on Friday said there was constant threat to her brother's life in Pakistan after the hanging of Afzal Guru and "suspecting attack" she had approached authorities but no action was taken.
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.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday paid rich tributes to Sarabjit Singh, who died at a Pakistani hospital following a brutal attack, at Bikhiwind at his cremation.
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.
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.
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