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There is a new hope raised for the Indian nation Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan jail after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced plans to convert the death sentences of prisoners to life imprisonment.

Gilani on the birth anniversary of former PPP leader Benazir Bhutto on Saturday told Parliament that the Interior Ministry will be asked to ‘move a summary to President Pervez Musharraf to commute the sentence of those on death row to life imprisonment’.

Former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney confirmed the development, saying Sarabjit will be one of the beneficiaries. Sarabjit was on death row for last 18 years in Lahore jail for alleged involvement in 1990 Lahore bomb blasts which killed 14 lives.

His execution was delayed indefinitely last month after efforts of Ansar Burney and the Indian government took up his case amid intense pressure from his family.

In a mercy petition filed with the Pakistan President, Sarabjit had said that he is only a poor farmer and victim of mistaken identity, who strayed into Pakistan from his village located on the border. His mercy petition was rejected by President Musharraf on March 3 this year. He was awarded death sentence, but on April 29 this year, his execution was postponed for 21 days and again till further notice.

Sarabjit’s daughter Poonam Kaur expressed happiness over the development, and Burney described it as a great achievement.

Burney said another Indian on death row, Kirpal Singh would also benefit from the move.

The decision will raise hopes for other similar prisoners. However, the government is yet to confirm the move. Offering glowing tributes to Bhutto, who was assassinated in an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 last year, Gilani announced a number steps ‘for national reconciliation for which she was a torch bearer’. The prime minister announced the formation of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Trust, which will look after the children, particularly those from Federally Administered Tribal Areas, whose parents lost lives in terrorist attacks or by bombing.

Tags: Benazir Bhutto, Gilani, India, Pakistan, Sarabjit, Sarabjit Singh

Pak activist, Ansar Burney, who fought for the release of Indian death row prisoners Kashmir Singh and Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan, was deported back to Dubai from New Delhi on Friday night.

It was reported that a “look-out” notice against him was issued which lead Burney, the leading Pakistani human rights activist, to deport back from the Indira Gandhi International Airport by an Emirates Airways flight at around 2030 hours.

Home Ministry officials, however, could not say who had issued the notice against Burney and in what connection. Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said Burney’s deportation could have been due to “some mistake”.

After his deportation, Burney’s son disclosed this information to some journalists in Delhi through an e-mail.

Burney had visited India in April this year and he had met Sarabjit’s family in Amritsar. He had also met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on April 8.

Burney had successfully secured the release of Kashmir Singh, who spent 35 years on death row in a Lahore jail, on February 20 this year as President Pervez Musharraf approved his mercy petition filed on the Indian’s behalf by the Human Rights ministry.

Airport sources said the reason given to Burney for deportation was that he had wrongly mentioned his port of embarkation.

Burney is doing his best efforts to save Indian nation Sarabjit Singh, blamed for bomb blasts in Lahore in 1990, who took away 14 lives. It was his efforts that led to Pakistan government’s indefinitely postponing execution of Sarabjiit earlier this month.

Tags: Burney, India, Kashmir Singh, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil questioned the hanging of Afzal Guru, a condemned prisoner in Parliament attack while the Indian government is seeking the clemency for Sarabjit Singh facing death sentence in Pakistan.

Patil asked that how can the demand be made for the hanging of Afzal Guru, who had been ordered to be hanged till death by the Supreme Court, when we are saying to release Sarabjit?

“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.

“These people want others to be hanged. What are you doing? You are saying don’t hang that person (Singh) and you say hang this person (Guru) here,” Patil said and added that law would take its own course.

Guru was accused of being involved in the criminal conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001. His clemency plea is pending with the government while Sarabjit is in Lahore jail for last 14 years, accused of being involved in Lahore blast which killed 14 people.

The statement of Patil is likely to stir a row with main the opposition BJP already slamming Patil for his “irresponsible” comments.

BJP says Patil’s comment as nonsense.

“The government which has been dithering on the execution of Afzal Guru is actually supporting and playing vote bank politics by giving such absurd reasons,” party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

The “ill-informed Union home minister of the country does not even know that while Sarabjit Singh was a case of mistaken identity, Guru’s role and involvement in Parliament attack is proven,” he said.

He says that the cases of Afzal and Sarabjit are totally different.

“While Sarabjit’s was a case of mistaken identity, Afzal’s role and involvement in the Parliament attack is proven and he has been convicted by the court,” Javadekar added.

Tags: Afzal Guru, BJP, Congress, India, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh, Shivraj Patil, UPA

All hopes of the release of Indian national Sarabjit Singh is shattered when Pakistan President’s office on Thursday said that no mercy petition for him is currently pending with it and hence Sarabjit’s death sentence stands as it is.

Sarabjit’s family, who finally reached Pakistan yesterday afternoon to meet him in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, were thinking to meet Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to appeal for his release.

President Pervez Musharraf’s spokesman Maj Gen (retired) Rashid Qureshi said a mercy petition received by the presidency some time ago from Sarabjit’s family had been forwarded to the interior ministry.

“There is nothing (related to Sarabjit Singh’s case that is currently pending) with the presidency,” Qureshi said.

The spokesman made it clear that he was speaking on behalf of the presidency and not the government. The interior ministry will have to consider the petition from Sarabjit’s family and pass on its recommendations to the Prime Minister’s secretariat.

Former Pakistani human rights minister Ansar Burney also had submitted a fresh mercy petition on behalf of Sarabjit to Musharraf, asking for his death sentence to be converted to life imprisonment as the case against him was “weak”.

However, Qureshi made it clear that no fresh petitions had been received by the President’s office.

“The President acts only on the recommendations of the Prime Minister,” Qureshi said.

Sarabjit has already spent 18 years on death row. Sarabjit is scheduled to be hanged on May 01.

Official sources said the Indian government had taken up Sarabjit`s case with the new coalition government led by the PPP shortly after it assumed office last month.

Sarabjit is suspected by Pakistan government for alleged involvement in four Lahore bomb blasts in 1990 that killed 14 people.

Tags: India, Musharraf, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh

Leading Pakistani rights activist and former human rights minister Ansar Burney, who visited India, on Monday filed a fresh petition seeking clemency for Indian national Sarabjit Singh who is on the death row in Pakistan jail far alleged involvement in the 1990 Lahore blast taking away 14 lives.

“The matter of Sarabjit Singh has become a suspicious case in view of the evidence that I have gathered,” said Burney.

Burney who gathered the evidence for Sarabjit’s case while in India, revealed that Sarabjit`s name did not figure in any of the four FIRs registered by police in connection with the bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Punjab province.

he said, “The identification parade in which Sarabjit was identified was conducted in a police station and not before a magistrate. The evidence in all four FIRs was recorded by one magistrate and not by different magistrates.”

“One of the witnesses, a man named Shaukat, has said that he was forced to testify against Sarabjit in court,” Burney said.

The new dispensation in Pakistan saying to convert all the death sentences to life imprisonment is also favouring Sarabjit’s case.

Burney said that he would raise all these issues in his fresh appeal and will try to meet Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People`s Party, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani to take up Sarabjit`s case.

After a lot of efforts now there is a ray of hope that Sarabjit might be shown clemency by the new coalition government led by PPP after it assumed office last month.

Tags: Burney, India, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh

Indian authorities are doing his best to save the Indian national Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan jail. After establishing contact with Pakistan’s new government making a fresh appeal to forgive Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds, it is reported that his execution on May 1 is deferred.

Sarabjit who is in Pakistan jail for 18 years sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990, was earlier 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.

Sarabjits family members confirmed that his execution is deferred.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has expressed hope for survival of Sarabjit and his early release.

“I would appeal to the authorities in Pakistan to show clemency” to Sarabjit, the Minister said in a statement to media as the date of hanging of the Indian national drew nearer.

“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.

Sarabjit’s family got 5 visas to visit Pakistan and got permission to meet Sarabjit. His family members hope that he will be released after meeting and appealing for his release to Pakistan government by them.

Tags: India, Pakistan, Sarabjit, Sarabjit Singh

Pakistan Government has finally granted five visas to Indian prisoner Sarabjit’s family. The family of Sarabjit, who is on the death row in Pakistan jail, will finally get to see him after around 18 years.

His wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, Sister Dalbir Kaur and her husband Baldev Singh are going to reach Lahore and Nankana Sahib, and meet Sarabjit perhaps once before he goes to the gallows on April 31.

All the family members are very excited to see him and there is a ray of hope to take him back from Pakistan. Dalbir Kaur said the family would leave for Pakistan Sunday by road. ‘I am so happy that I can’t express it. I have hope that he will be pardoned now,’ she said.

‘The Pakistani people are like my kith and kin. So, if I go to my brothers and sisters and put my plea to them, I am sure they will listen,’ she said.

Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur said in Amritsar that they will carry sweets for him. ‘He was very fond of kheer (sweet milk and rice) and petha. We will carry it for him,’ she said.

The visas have to be availed within a month and are valid for a stay of 7 days only. The family is allowed to visit Lahore and Nankana Sahib only.

Sarabjit is going to be executed on April 1 which was later deferred to April 30 after a plea of clemency from the Indian government.

Last week, Burney traveled to India to meet with the family members to ‘check their story’. He had then promised to fight Sarabjit’s case in Pakistan in ‘light of new evidence’.

Sarabjit’s family claimed that he is innocent and unknowingly crossed the border but the Pakistan government accused him as a spy and blamed him for Lahore bomb blast killing 14 people in 1990. Pakistan government identifies him as Manjit Singh instead of Sarabjit.

The members want to meet President Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani to present their petition for mercy.

Tags: India, Musharraf, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh

Pakistani human rights activist and former minister Ansar Burney reached India in Amritsar today to meet Sarabjit’s family.

Burney, who was at the forefront of affairs when alleged Indian spy Kashmir Singh was freed in Pakistan, had stated that he would be visiting India to provide help in the Sarabjit case as well.

He said even if Sarabjit was a terrorist, “His family is not at fault and I don’t see why his family should be allowed to suffer… But I will put my life at stake to save him if he is innocent”.

“I will be visiting Sarabjit Singh’s native village of Bikhiwind to collect legitimate evidence about his innocence from his family. Then I’ll be in a better position to convince President Pervez Musharraf to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment,” he told reporters.

Sarabjit Singh, the Indian national in Pakistani jail was sentenced to death on April 1 which is postponed for a month concerning the request of Indian government. Sarabjit was accused as a terrorist by Pakistan’s court and his appeal for mercy was rejected by President Musharaff claiming him a spy.

Sarabjit’s sister also announced to visit Pakistan with some other family members to submit a fresh petition to Pakistan government for release of Sarabjit. But later she postponed her visit after being assured by Burney that he would help her get the visas for the entire family when he visits India.

During his visit, the minister is also expected to visit New Delhi and meet with the senior brass of the government and request them to let off Pakistani prisoners. India had last month categorically ruled out releasing Pakistani prisoners in return for Sarabjit’s freedom.

He will also discuss on the issue for the release of Pakistani prisoners languishing in Indian jails. He is expected to meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to appeal for the release of Pak prisoners in Punjab jails. There are nearly as 46 Pak prisoners in Punjab jail despite having served their sentence.

Tags: India, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh

Indian national Sarabjeet Singh who was set to be hanged on April 1 by Pakistan Government is excused by Pak government for one more month. His execution is deferred by 30 days after getting formal appeal for his clemency from Indian government.

Foreign minister Pranav Mukherjee informed the news on Tuesday in Lok Sabha and said, “I am glad to inform the parliament that Pakistan President Pervej Musharaff has postponed Sarabjeet’s execution by one month till April 30.”

Other sources said the decision to defer Sarabjit’s hanging had been informally conveyed to the Indian High Commission.

Mukherjee said that they got success in saving Sarabjeet’s life temporarily and they will try their best to save his life further. He said that government is serious about the matter.

Also Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur sent a written appeal for clemency directly to Musharraf. She requested him for permission to visit Pakistan to meet her brother in jail.

Sarabjeet is blamed for serial bomb blast in Lahore in 1990. His family submitted mercy petitions many times but were rejected. They pleaded that he was not a spy and accidentally crossed the Pakistan boundary but the Pakistan Government who claims him as Manjit Singh, denied the statements and accused him as a terrorist.

Tags: India, Pakistan, Pranav Mukherjee, Sarabjit Singh

Indian national Sarabjit Singh is issued death warrant on April 1 by Pakistan Government for his alleged involvement in terrorist attacks. Pakistan on Tuesday said it has not received any official request from the Indian government seeking clemency for its national Sarabjit Singh.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told that Indian government had not sent any plea on Sarabjit’s behalf yet while Indian government is saying that they didn’t get any official confirmation of Sarabjit’s execution.

“As far as I know his hanging is fixed for April 1. We have not received any official communication (from India) in this regard,” he said.

The Pakistan government is also yet to respond to the Indian High Commission’s request for consular access to Sarabjit to confirm the reports that he is to be hanged, the sources told reporters.

“There are only media reports that Sarabjit is to be hanged and consular access had been sought to confirm these reports,” a source said.

His family submitted mercy petitions many times but was rejected. They pleaded that he was not a spy and accidentally crossed the Pakistan boundary but the Pakistan Government denied the statements and accused him as a terrorist.

Tags: India, Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh