New Delhi: India on Wednesday expressed shock at the Pakistani turn over the release of Sarabjit Singh and made a fresh appeal to set him free.
“I won’t speculate on what happened in Pakistan last evening. I further renew our request to the President of Pakistan to release Sarabjit Singh who has been in custody for over two decades and is serving death sentence, be released,” foreign minister S.M. Krishna said.
New Delhi had been pressing for Sarabjit’s release for sometime and had taken up the issue even during Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari when he visited India on a day-long tour in April this year.
“As you are aware, the government of India has consistently urged the government of Pakistan, on several occasions, to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view in the case of Sarabjit Singh,” Krishna said.
“I also appeal to the government of Pakistan to release all Indian nationals who have completed their prison terms and request the release of all other Indians who are serving jail sentences in Pakistani prisons for petty crimes,” Krishna added.
Sarabjit is facing gallows for the past 22 years in a Lahore prison after being convicted for being behind a series of blasts. His family, however, claims he had crossed over to the Pakistani side of the border in August 1990 inadvertently in an inebriated state.
Sarabjit filed a fresh mercy petition after Zardari’s India visit last month and his village Bhikhiwind celebrated the news that he would walk free soon after announcement that the Pakistan president had commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment. Gloom, however, fell on Sarabjit’s village after a post-midnight clarification that it was not Sarabjit but another Indian national Surjeet Singh was being released.
While New Delhi is not happy at the development, it is not ready to go beyond saying that they would continue to press for Sarabjit’s release, official circles here say that the flip-flop happened due to pressure from the Pakistani army. The fact that Pakistan Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar took close to eight hours to correct himself and announce that it was Surjeet Singh who was being released.
Surjeet was arrested on espionage charges and his death sentenced was commuted to life imprisonment in 1989 by the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the advice of the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Since he had served his life imprisonment, there was no need for a presidential announcement, sources in the Indian home ministry pointed out.
The foreign office has asked the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for a detailed report since it is has cast a shadow over foreign secretary-level talks when the secretaries Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani meet in New Delhi on July 4-5.
While Surjeet’s family is celebrating the news of his release after languishing in the Pakistani prison for more than three decades, Sarabjit’s family is heart-broken.
“It was a midnight shock for us. We had planned to go with band baaja to Wagah border. A lot of plans were made but we got a rude shock,” Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur said.
“We still have faith that he will be released. We feel cheated by this turn of events,” Sarabjit’s daughter Poonam who was barely 23 days old when her father was arrested, said.
