Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek will meet Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh on Monday to review his case, following the Indian government's appeal for clemency for him, official sources said, raising hopes of his release. Sarabjit, 42, has been on death row since he was convicted for alleged involvement in four bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Punjab province in 1990. His family insists that he was wrongly convicted for the bombings.
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.
Burney, who was the human rights minister in the interim government in Pakistan, was deported back from the Indira Gandhi International Airport by an Emirates Airways flight at Airways flight at around 2030 hours because of a "look-out" notice against him, they said. It was, however, not immediately clear who had issued the notice against him and in what connection.
Defending champions Punjab were shocked by Manipur 2-1 in the quarter-final Group A league opener in the 63rd National Football championship, for the Santosh Trophy, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in Chennai on Tuesday.
India on Tuesday asked Pakistan to release death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh as the Home Secretaries of the two countries held talks in Islamabad on terrorism and security and signed a pact to curb drug smuggling.The demand for the release of Sarabjit, an Indian national languishing on death row since he was convicted of alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province in 1990, was raised by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, sources said.
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.
The family of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Punjab province, arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday to meet him and to urge the Pakistan government to release him. Sarabjit's family, his sister Dalbir Kaur and her husband Baldev Singh have been given seven-day visas to visit Nankana Sahib and Lahore, where Sarabjit is being held on death row at Kot Lakhpat jail.
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.
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.
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.
Pakistani TV channel Geo news reported that the move may be an indication that Sarabjit, convicted for triggering blasts killing 14 people in Pakistan in 1990, would not be hanged. However, there was no official word in this regard so far.
The fifth match of the ICL 20s Indian Championship witnessed the in form Chandigarh Lions edge Mumbai Champs by two wickets in a low-scoring game at the LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday.
During his visit to India, Burney is expected to meet senior officials, including the ministers for home affairs and external affairs, and human rights activists in an effort to secure the release of all Pakistani prisoners who had completed their sentences.
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.
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.
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 was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990 that killed about 14 people. Pakistan's Supreme Court had rejected his mercy petition in 2006. Sarabjit's family claims he is innocent, saying he had strayed into Pakistani territory by mistake.
The deportation of Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney from India could delay the release of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore, Singh's sister said on Saturday and asked Indian politicians not to play "dirty politics".
In controversial remarks, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said when the government has been pressing for clemency for Sarabjit Singh facing death sentence in Pakistan, how can the demand be made for the hanging of Afzal Guru, condemned prisoner in Parliament attack. "You want Afzal Guru to be hanged. (At the same time) you are saying that don't hang a person who has gone to Pakistan (Singh)," Patil told reporters in Latur on Tuesday.
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.
Sarabjit's family brought with them special food that he was fond of. Dalbir Kaur was carrying 18 'rakhis' one for each year that her brother has been away from India. Ahead of the meeting, prison officials said Sarabjit's kin would be allowed to spend at least an hour with him. They pointed out that the prison superintendent had the discretion to allow them to spend an additional 30 minutes.
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.
Pakistan granted consular access to Sarabjit Singh last week.
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.
Dalbir Singh, sister of Sarabjit Singh who has been condemned to death in Pakistan, announced on Thursday that she has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party to express her gratitude to the party for highlighting her brother's plight.
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.
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.
Chasing a modest target of 125, Chandigarh Lions surrendered meekly handing a 43-run win victory to Kolkata Tigers in the fifth match of the Indian Cricket League's Twenty20 tournament in Panchkula
"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.
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 family of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan, is all set to travel to that country to meet him after being granted visas by the Pakistani High Commission on Wednesday.The visas have been granted for a duration of one month to five members of the family and is valid from today, Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur said.Sarabjit's wife, his two daughters, along with Dalbir and her husband, would leave for Pakistan on Sunday.
"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.
Sarabjit's sister receives letter from him
After Muneer's release, Pakistan did not respond to extradition requests by the Indian government.
Sarabjit's lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid also has no such confirmation in Pakistan with regard to his client's conversion.
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.
Musharraf has said that the legality of the case will have to be looked into.
Musharraf said the matter needs to come to him after all proceedings and with all its legal implications.
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