Islamabad, May 29. Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, convicted for his alleged role in bomb attacks in Pakistan in 1990, has sent a fresh clemency appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari, a media report said today.
This is the fifth mercy petition from Sarabjit, who was sentenced to death for a string of bombings that killed 14 persons. The 49-year-old Indian is being held at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. He has been on death row for over 20 years.
Sarabjit’s fresh petition, which includes a document with signatures of 1,00,000 Indians, urges Zardari to reciprocate the recent release of Pakistani virologist Khalil Chishti by India, The Express Tribune reported.
Chishti, who was convicted in a murder case in 1992, was recently freed on bail by India’s Supreme Court.The court, subsequently, allowed him to visit Pakistan to meet his family. Attached to Sarabjit’s mercy petition are two letters addressed to Zardari by Delhi’s Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari and Syed Muhammad Yamin Hashmi, caretaker of the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
Sarabjit’s counsel Owais Sheikh said his client had written a two-page letter to be sent to the President. “I’ve forwarded both the petition and the letter to President Zardari.” In his letter to the President, Maulana Bukhari of the Jama Masjid pointed out that Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur had met him personally and provided “vital evidence” which proved Sarabjit’s innocence.
“Singh should be freed on humanitarian grounds, which will not only help in promoting goodwill between the two neighbours but will also result in promoting communal harmony among Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of India,” Bukhari wrote. Sarabjit was set to be hanged in 2008 but the Pakistan put off his execution indefinitely after PM Yousuf Raza Gilani intervened. (PTI)
