Pakistan to hang Indian spy; minister refuses help

Lahore: Pakistan's caretaker minister for Human Rights, Ansar Burney, has said that he will not help Sarabjit Singh, an Indian convicted of spying.

''Sarabjit Singh is accused of martyring many people here. I have no sympathy for terrorists,'' said Ansar Burney.

President Musharraf turned down Singh's petition for clemency on March 4, according to Javed Latif, the superintendent of Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison.

"We have his death warrant and the execution will take place on April 1," he told Reuters.

Sarabjit Singh was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and carrying out four bomb blasts that killed 14 people.

Singh's family has said he crossed the border into Pakistan accidentally in 1990 while he was drunk.

Pakistani officials say he was arrested while trying to slip back into India after the bomb blasts.

On March 4, Musharraf had ordered the release of another Indian, Kashmir Singh, a convicted spy who had spent 35 years on death row in Pakistan.

Pakistan said he was released on humanitarian grounds.

''There is a big difference between Kashmir Singh and Sarabjit Singh. Kashmir Singh was accused of spying only, and for that he had spent 35 years in jail. He has not gone from here without being duly punished,'' Ansar Burney said.

Tit for tat

Pakistan has linked Sarabjit's mercy petition to the death of Khalid Mehmood, a Pakistani spy who died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences last month. Pakistan claims he was tortured and killed.

''After receiving the body of Khalid Mehmood, things have hardened and it has become difficult for Sarabjit's mercy plea,'' said Ansar Burney.

India insists Khalid died of natural causes and the post-mortem report from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences says as much.

Khalid was regularly produced in courts, where he made no reference of being tortured.

Unlike Sarabjit, who crossed over accidentally, Khalid Mehmood came to India in 2005 to watch an Indo-Pak cricket match and never returned.

A year later, he was arrested in Faridabad on charges of spying.

He was handed back to the local police in May 2006. Soon after, he fell sick and was treated at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital and AIIMS.

The Pakistani government and Mehmood's family said he had been tortured, but the Indian government said he had been found with sensitive documents and died of a stomach ailment.

As Sarabjit seeks pardon, top Indian government officials claim Pakistan has purposely linked Sarabjit's case with Khalid's.