"I owe it to Veer Savarkar, to his spirit, to his legacy and to his untold story so that I tell it well and it reaches people, and people absorb it and feel what he went through and all the sacrifices that he made, which have been brushed under the carpet."
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.
The family of Sarabjit Singh, whose death sentence in 1990 bomb attack cases has been upheld in Pakistan, on Wednesday pleaded with the government of India to work with Islamabad for his release, saying he is "innocent."
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.
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.
Ill-fated Kirpal from Gurdaspur has reportedly been acquitted of bomb blast charges by the Lahore high court but his death sentence could not be commuted because of unknown reasons.
Swapandeep Kaur, the daughter of Sarabjit Singh, whose hanging was stayed by the Pakistani authorities by a month, on Thursday said it appeared that the neighbouring country has soften its stand on her father. "It is an indication from the Pakistan side that it has soften its stand on my father," she told reporters Chandigarh.
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.
The proposed visit of a Pakistani delegation to Ajmer for the 801st Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti has become mired in controversy with local activists raising strong objection to it in the wake of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh's death.
The body of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who died early on Thursday following a brutal assault by other inmates of a jail in Lahore, was handed over to officials of the Indian High Commission by Pakistani authorities.
Sarabjit's sister receives letter from him
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.
Two officials from Indian High Commission can meet him on Tuesday.
Pakistan on Wednesday informed India that its request for consular access to Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Pakistan, was being examined.
With Pakistan reportedly deciding to hang Indian national Sarabjit Singh, the BJP on Monday asked the government to talk to Islamabad "sternly" to save the "innocent" person from the gallows. The Opposition party had a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he had said that he was having "sleepless nights" when Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef was arrested in Australia last year but was silent on the Sarabjit issue.
Sarabjit Singh was awarded death sentence due to bias against his religion and nationality, a review petition his lawyer has filed says.
The government was making all out efforts to get the Indian national freed from a Pakistani jail.
Several college girls performed a yagna (religious offering) on Thursday in Bhikhiwind village, next to the Pakistan border, to pray for the life of Sarabjit Singh, who is facing death sentence in the neighbouring country.
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.
Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian on death row in Pakistan following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks, has reached Jaipur in her endavour to meet visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
A fresh application has been filed before the Pakistan Supreme Court seeking review of its decision to dismiss the Indian death row inmate Sarabjit Singh's petition challenging his death penalty, The Daily Times reports.
The security of two Pakistani prisoners lodged in a jail in Ambala has been beefed up following the death of Sarabjit in Pakistan.
The government which introduced amendments to the landmark Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha Thursday could not get it passed as opposition stalled proceedings in the House over killing of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan and other issues.
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.
Promising to help Sarabjit Singh, Pakistani human rights campaigner Ansar Burney on Tuesday said he will seek pardon from the relatives of those killed in bomb blasts allegedly involving the Indian prisoner. Burney, who met Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon in Delhi, said he would also take up the case of another Indian national languishing in a Pakistani jail for 28 years.
Awais Sheikh, the Pakistani lawyer of slain Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, and his son were abducted and briefly held by unidentified men in an area near the border with India.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai on Thursday spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani and asked him to expedite the handing over the body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who died in a Lahore hospital early on Thursday morning after battling for life for nearly a week.
Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian citizen Sarabjit Singh who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail since 1990, said she was upset with the Indian government for not showing timely concern towards her brother. "If the government had shown its concern in time, my brother would have been standing with me," Dalbir said on Sunday evening.
Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has once again appealed to the president and the prime minister of Pakistan to release Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who is on death row for over two decades.
Making the announcement, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Parliament that the Interior Ministry will be asked to 'move a summary to President Pervez Musharraf to commute the sentence of those on death row to life imprisonment'. Under Pakistan Constitution, the President has powers to commute sentences.
Ansar Burney, the leading Pakistani Human Rights activist on Wednesday said that he would file a fresh mercy petition to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on behalf of Sarabjit Singh on Thursday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that the Centre make "fresh efforts" for securing the early release of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner on death row in Pakistan. The demand comes in the wake of Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju writing to the prime minister for the release of Pakistani prisoner Dr Khaleel Chishty, who has been languishing in Indian jails for the past 20 years. The SC judge had sought the release of Chishty, a micro-biologist.
While the Congress party's popularity is on the wane, an aggressive Akali Dal is moving in quickly to encash on the hurt feelings of the Sikh community and pitch itself as the only party which works for its interests, says Anita Katyal
Dope-tainted Manipuri lifter L Monika Devi and Sarabjit Singh, who broke his own national record in the over 105kg category, will spearhead Indian challenge at the Commonwealth Games from October 3-14.
She has urged the President to send a special envoy to Pakistan to visit the Kotlakhpat Rai Jail and provide medical aid to Sarabjit who is in solitary confinement.
The wife and daughters of Sarabjit Singh, who has been languishing in the jail in Lahore for over 20 years, have brought their struggle to secure his release to New Delhi. Rediff.com's Priyanka catches up with them at Jantar Mantar
A senior government officer, who was dealing with Pakistan on sensitive and strategic issues, tells Sheela Bhatt that Pakistan never wanted Sarabit Singh to return to India and share all that he knew. He says the the killing of the Indian convict in a Lahore jail was a planned murder.
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