New Delhi, Nov. 01, 2008
ddinews.gov.in
Surita Mehta
Sarabjit Singh's case will be taken up at the international level
if the Pakistan government refuses to change its decision to commute
the death sentence of the Indian prisoner to life imprisonment,
Pakistani rights activist,
Ansar Burney said in Kolkata on Friday.
The family members of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row
in Pakistan, crossing the border at Attari on Wednesday. From
left are Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, sister Dalbir Kaur,
and daughters Poonam and Swapandeep
"I will take up Sarabjit Singh's case at the international
level and mobilise strong public opinion if the Yousuf Gilani
government in Pakistan sticks to its decision to hang the Indian
prisoner" Burney, a former human rights minister, said in
Kolkata on Friday.
Burney who was instrumental in pursuing Sarabjit's case from
the beginning, said that he would like Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani
to keep his promise at his swearing in that he would commute the
death sentences of all condemned prisoners in Pakistani jails.
Photo from Getty Images by AFP/Getty Images
Sukhpreet Kaur (R), the wife of Indian prisoner held in Pakistan
Sarabjit Singh, his sister Dalbir Kaur (C) and her husband Baldev
Singh (2R) walk with Sukhpreet's daughters Swapandip (2L) and
Poonam (3L) as they wave to media representatives on their return
to India after meeting Sarabjit Singh at the Kot Lakhpat Central
jail on the outskirts of Lahore in Pakistan, at The Wagah Border
Post on April 29, 2008. Dalbir Kaur said that Pakistan demanded
that Pakistani prisoners in India should be released on the completion
of their sentence.
"I hope the prime minister will stand by his words and do
justice to Sarabjit," Burney said. "I am not in favour
of showing sympathy to terrorists, but at least 65 per cent of
the prisoners awaiting death in prisons in Pakistan are innocent
and they deserve to live," he said.
Burney was Kolkata to meet a woman in a hospital, who claims
herself to be a Pakistani citizen but suffers from memory loss.
No change in status of Sarabjit, says Pakistan
Meanwhile, Pakistan on Friday said there has been no change in
the status of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, awarded
capital punishment for alleged involvement in a string of bomb
blasts in Pakistan in 1990.
Asked whether Sarabjit would be freed in exchange for some Pakistani
prisoners being held in India, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad
Sadiq said "status quo was being maintained in the case of
the Indian prisoner".
He declined to give further details.
Sadiq's comments came three days after reports that Sarabjit
had been shifted from death row cell to one for political prisoners
in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail.
There was no official word on the development but sources had
said that Punjab province's jail department had informed the federal
interior ministry about the shifting.
Sarabjit has been on death row since he was convicted of triggering
four blasts in 1990 that killed 14 people in the country.
Reports had said on Tuesday that he had been shifted from death
row to a normal cell at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison, in an indication
that he would not be hanged.
