Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh, is hopeful that Pakistan's Human Rights minister Ansar Burney will bring some good news for her and her family members after his meeting with President Pervez Musharraf. Burney had promised Dalbir Kaur that he would take up the matter Musharraf soon after a daily said Sarabjit would be hanged to death on April 1. He had been dubbed a RAW agent and sentenced to death.
But before taking the extreme step, the family members will sit on a hunger strike at the border and stage a protest before the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to mount pressure on Islamabad.
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
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.
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.
A Pakistani inquiry tribunal probing the murder of Indian national Sarabjit Singh has recorded the statements of 10 witnesses. The one-man inquiry tribunal of Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Lahore high court is holding proceedings every day and has recorded the statements of 10 witnesses, said an official statement issued on Tuesday.
The distraught family of deceased Sarabjit Singh reached their native village Bikhiwind in Tarn Taran district of Punjab on Thursday evening.
The family has set forth demand to the Union Home Ministry, including that Sarabjit's body be cremated with full state honours, Raj Kumar Verka, Vice Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, told PTI.
The main accused in the brutal attack on Indian national Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistani jail have told investigators that they planned to kill him to take revenge for bombings he was accused of carrying out in Lahore.
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.
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.
Kirpal Singh has also been given capital punishment.
Pakistan's incoming government should convert the death sentence of Indian national Sarabjit Singh into life imprisonment on "humanitarian grounds" and ensure his early release, caretaker Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney said on Monday. President Pervez Musharraf had on March 19 deferred the hanging of Sarabjit, scheduled for April 1, by 30 days after receiving an appeal for clemency from the Indian government and the condemned man's family.
Pakistan Punjab Province caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi rejected any conspiracy behind Sarabjit's death in an interview to CNN-IBN's Karan Thapar after Sarabjit Singh's death.
Pakistani officials on Monday dismissed a report that a medical board was considering a proposal to send abroad Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh -- comatose in a Lahore hospital after a brutal assault -- for treatment.
Indian death row prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh has filed a fresh appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari seeking mercy on the occasion of that country's Independence day on August 14, his lawyer Awais Sheikh said on Thursday.
Earlier, Sarabjit's lawyer, Awais Sheikh, had stated in the court that he was not allowed to meet his client despite court orders. He had also filed a petition against the interior secretary of Punjab and superintendent of Kot Lakhpat jail.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday adjourned till Wednesday the hearing of a review petition challenging the death sentence given to Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh for his alleged involvement in the bomb blasts.
The execution of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Pakistan, has not been postponed further, a presidential spokesman said on Saturday. The hanging of Sarabjit was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf last month so that Pakistan's new government could review his case following an appeal for clemency from the Indian government.
Stating that the change of government in the neighbouring country had strengthened their hope for the release of Sarbajit, Sarabjit Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur said she would go to the Pakistan High Commission to apply for the visas immediately after obtaining the passports.
Indian members of a bilateral judicial committee on prisoners have asked Pakistan to arrange a visit to the Lahore hospital where Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh is being treated after a brutal assault.
Sarabjit Singh, currently in coma in a hospital in Lahore following a brutal assault, should be sent to India for better treatment, his wife on Sunday said in an emotional appeal to Pakistani authorities.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday reacted strongly to the attack on Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is currently on death row in a Lahore jail, demanding that India should take strong note of it and warn Pakistan.
Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has called on his Indian counterpart to personally look into an attack on a Pakistani prisoner in a jail in Jammu and ensure a thorough investigation.Sanaullah Ranjay, a Pakistani national serving a life sentence was attacked in the prison in Jammu, a day after Indian national Sarabjit Singh succumbed to injuries sustained in a brutal assault within a jail in Lahore.
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 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.
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.
The lawyer of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani prison, on Saturday said he had received a death threat from the Taliban for pursuing the case of the Indian national.
A three-member bench led by Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed dismissed Sarabjit's review petition on merit and upheld the death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court in 1991. The apex court gave its verdict after his counsel failed to appear in court.
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.
A Pakistani court gave permission to the sister of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Punjab province, to meet him at Kot Lakhpat Jail on Thursday.
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.
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.
She has also renewed her visa request with the Pakistan High Commission, which had earlier rejected her application.
Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row in Pakistan, had an emotional reunion with his sister Dalbir Kaur after three years in a prison on Thursday.
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.
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.
