Pakistan has said that Indian national Sarabjit Singh alias Manjeet Singh's mercy petition was not pending in President Asif Ali Zardari's office, as his execution had already been stayed by the 'previous government'.
India has taken all steps that are essential to secure the release of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a delegation of leaders from Punjab. "A delegation of leaders from Punjab met the Prime Minister. The issue of Sarabjit Singh was prominently raised by the delegation and they apprised him of the unanimous resolution passed by the Assembly for his release," AICC spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.
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.
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.
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.
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
Kirpal Singh has also been given capital punishment.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know the Centre's stand on a plea for direction to it to take steps for release and repatriation of Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh languishing in a Pakistani jail for the last 21 years for his alleged role in a terror act there.
'The worst has happened to us. My brother could have returned to India, but our government did not take effective and strong initiatives.' Sarabjit Singh's sister tells Rediff.com's Onkar Singh.
Daughters of a Pakistani man killed in the 1991 bomb blast blamed on Sarabjit Singh, have threatened to fast unto death if the Indian prisoner, who is due to be hanged on May 1, is pardoned. The family of Singh, who was handed down capital punishment for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Lahore and Multan, has been camping in the country hoping to meet top leaders to seek clemency for him.
The conviction and imprisonment of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian on death row in a Pakistani jail for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks, was 'an extraordinary miscarriage of justice', his lawyer has said in a new book.
The Congress appeared to have bounced back in the state's political landscape after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the AAP in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.
Over 1,400 prisoners went on hunger strike at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on Wednesday where Indian national Sarabjit Singh was killed, to protest the hostile attitude of the prison staff.
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.
The sister of Sarabjit Singh, the Indian death-row convict languishing in a Pakistani jail, on Wednesday knocked the doors of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention for his release.
Dalbir had an appointment with Sonia, but could not meet her as she was busy.
She has also renewed her visa request with the Pakistan High Commission, which had earlier rejected her application.
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.
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.
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.
"I will study his case. As far as pardoning him is concerned, a decision will be made in line with the law and the constitution. The final decision will be made by the Prime Minister and the President," said Naek, whose first meeting with Sarabjit at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail on Monday has sparked fresh hopes of the Indian's release.
"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.
The mortal remains of Sarabjit Singh, who died after being brutally assaulted by fellow inmates in a Lahore jail, were consigned to flames in his native village in Bikhiwind on Friday afternoon with state honours.
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.
Just keeping our fingers crossed, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said about Sarbajit Singh, who is battling for life in a Lahore hospital after a brutal assault last week in a Pakistani jail.
"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.
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.
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.
Foreign office spokesman Naeem Khan said Sarabjit's family will be issued Visas according to law.
"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.
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.
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.
Grewal personally handed over a memorandum to Blair in this connection.
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.