India urges Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit |
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday made an appeal to Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit Singh on humanitarian grounds as members in the Lok Sabha made a strong plea to the government to step up efforts to save the Indian national from the gallows. Amid demands that Sarabjit be saved from death, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a suo motu statement in the House, saying the government had no formal intimation from Pakistan and the matter about the 'death warrant' had come to the notice through media reports. Indian High Commission in Islamabad has sought details from the Government of Pakistan about reports of black warrant against Sarabjit, he said. "According to press reports, the black warrant has been issued and the sentence will be carried out on April one," Mukherjee said about Sarabjit, who is facing death sentence for allegedly carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990. Noting that India and Pakistan had put in place certain institutional arrangements to improve the situation of prisoners of the respective countries, he said "it is in this context and in the same spirit that we appeal to the Government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh's case with clemency on humanitarian grounds." Members, cutting across party lines, voiced concern over reports that Sarabjit was going to be hanged on April 1 and wanted the House to pass a resolution urging Pakistan not to hang him. Pakistani media reports on Sunday said President Pervez Musharraf had rejected Sarabjit's mercy petition and the death warrant has been received at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail of Lahore where he has been languishing for the past 17 years. The External Affairs Minister's statement came in the backdrop of intense demands that the government act to save Sarabjit from death. |
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