Death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh's family today returned from Pakistan hoping he would be pardoned after spending 18 years in jail.
AMRITSAR/ISLAMABAD: Death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh's family today returned from Pakistan hoping he would be pardoned after spending 18 years in jail.
"My brother is a victim of bad luck," Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, who returned with his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and his daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, told reporters.
The family hoped Sarabjit's death sentence, reportedly deferred by three weeks, would be commuted and he will be able to walk out of the Lahore jail a free man.
Dalbir said that she would like to once again visit Pakistan if she was granted visa.
Dalbir, who met 42-year-old Sarabjit along with other family members at Kotlakhpat jail in Lahore, said she spent 48 minutes with him. "I could not even hug my brother and he could not hug his daughters, since he was kept separated by bars. It was very tough time for him when he met his family members and he was struggling hard to hold back his tears,"
she said.
"During the meeting, Sarabjit himself prepared tea for his family in the jail and we took it with sweets. Later, he also offered us cold drinks," Kaur recalled.
"Sarabjit is innocent and could never commit a heinous act," she said claiming he had crossed over inadvertently.
Sarabjit has been sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990. His execution, scheduled for April 1, was deferred by 30 days by the Pakistani Government.
Dawn newspaper quoted unnamed Pakistani officials as saying that Sarabjit's hanging has been put off by three weeks. But there was no word on this from the President's office or the foreign ministry.
At the Wagah border, Dalbir told reporters "when I come back again, I hope you will send Sarabjit back with me. And we will all celebrate at this same spot."
Efforts to save Sarabjit from the gallows received a boost with former premier Nawaz Sharif asking the Pakistan government not to hang him on humanitarian grounds.
Sharif said Sarabjit should be released on the condition that he would be sent back to Pakistan if concrete evidence is found against him.
Sharif also suggested that any review of Sarabjit's case by the Pakistan government should be linked to similar action by the Indian government in the cases of Pakistanis currently being held in the neighbouring country.
Dalbir also appealed to prison authorities in India and Pakistan to treat all prisoners, irrespective of their nationality, as human beings.
"After reading about my brother's experiences in jail in his earlier letters, I was hurt. There should be no ill-treatment of prisoners," she said.
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