New Delhi, April 18
Pakistan today agreed to defer the hanging of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in their country, by another month. This came hours after external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee appealed to the Pakistani authorities to grant clemency to the Indian prisoner.
A statement issued here by the external affairs ministry said Mukherjee asked Islamabad that mercy be shown to “the unfortunate human being” on humanitarian grounds irrespective of the legal position.
“I appeal to the authorities in Pakistan to show clemency to Shri Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner who has been in Pakistani jail since 1990 and who has been under sentence of death for the past 17 years. Whatever the legal position may be, on humanitarian grounds alone I would hope that mercy could be shown to this unfortunate human being,” he said in the statement.
Sarabjit Singh, currently lodged in a Lahore jail, was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in the 1990 serial blasts in Lahore and Multan. His hanging was initially slated for April 1 but was deferred till this month-end in response to an appeal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Islamabad: Leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney has said he will file a fresh appeal seeking clemency for Sarabjit Singh as there were several loopholes in his conviction.
“The matter of Sarabjit Singh has become a suspicious case in view of the evidence that I have gathered,” Burney, former human rights minister, said. “I will now file a fresh appeal with President Pervez Musharraf giving all this evidence.”
Burney met Sarabjit’s lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid in Lahore today to discuss the condemned man’s case and to review the evidence against him.
