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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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 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.
Foreign office spokesman Naeem Khan said Sarabjit's family will be issued Visas according to law.
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 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.
Referring to Musharraf's comment on clemency, Kasuri said, "He did not give a direct reply. He said I am a man of mercy."
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
The body of Indian prisoner Kirpal Singh, who died under mysterious circumstances in a Pakistani jail, arrived in India on Tuesday.
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 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 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.
Two officials from Indian High Commission can meet him on Tuesday.
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, 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.
Dalbir had an appointment with Sonia, but could not meet her as she was busy.
