Anger gripped the country over death of Sarabjit Singh who died in a Lahore hospital on early Thursday morning of injuries sustained in an assault by inmates in high security Kot Lakhpat jail.
Anger gripped the country over death of Sarabjit Singh who died in a Lahore hospital on early Thursday morning of injuries sustained in an assault by inmates in high security Kot Lakhpat jail.
Minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur and Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal received the body at Amritsar airport brought back in a special plane.
The body is to be taken to government hospital for autopsy and would be handed over to the family at Bikhiwind village for a state funeral on Friday. The second post-mortem as per his family’s wish to “know the cause behind his death” is being conducted at Patti by a team of six doctors of government-run Amritsar Medical College.
Giving voice to the anguish, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said the government was extremely distressed. “It is a terrible psychological and emotional setback for us. We deeply regret his death. We are extremely angry,” said Khurshid adding Sarabjit’s death was a setback to people-to-people contact between India-Pakistan.
The death of Sarabjit dominated the political arena, from parliament to the political parties.
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha made separate but identical obituary reference to the Indian prisoner.
Earlier in the day, politicians made a beeline at the residence of Congress leader and chairman of National Commission of Scheduled Caste Raj Kumar Verka where Sarabjit’s wife, two daughters and sister were lodged. Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde reached at around 8 am to offer condolences, followed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
BJP while condemning the death of Sarabjit as a ‘cold blooded murder’ assumed a strident tone demanding that India call back its high commissioner in Pakistan and scale down diplomatic relations with that country. “The level of diplomatic relations should be scaled down for the time being, and the Indian high commissioner should be called back,” said BJP president Rajnath Singh.
Meanwhile, the MEA spokesman described Sarabjit’s death as killing of an Indian citizen.
“We demand that the government of Pakistan conduct a thorough investigation to identify those who were responsible, and ensure that they are punished. We share the pain and sorrow of Sarabjit Singh’s family. The shocking attack on Sarabjit Singh highlights the need for concerted action by Pakistan to safeguard Indians in Pakistani jails,” said the spokesman.
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