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India conveys concern to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: India has conveyed to Pakistan its concerns that hanging Sarabjit Singh could vitiate the atmosphere between the two countries and complicate the peace process at a time when a new government is about to take charge here.

The Indian High Commission here has sought consular access to Sarabjit, whose hanging has been fixed for April 1. A senior Indian diplomat said it had been conveyed at the “highest level” that Pakistan should reconsider the execution of the death sentence.

But quoting Interior Ministry officials, Dawn News television said there was no chance of Sarabjit being pardoned as his mercy petition had been rejected.

It is learnt that New Delhi on Monday also communicated to the Foreign Ministry here that the execution of Sarabjit, on the heels of the Kashmir Singh and Khalid Mehmood episodes that set off a negative fallout in Pakistan, would be perceived in India as linked to these, hardening public opinion on that side too days before a new government takes over in Islamabad.

New Delhi indicated recently that it hoped to hold a review meeting of the fourth round of the composite dialogue process “as soon as possible” and decide on starting the fifth round.

The review meeting is held between the Foreign Secretaries. Officials have said Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon may travel to the Pakistani capital for the meeting in April, provided a new government is in place here.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said he had no information on what the Indian side had communicated to Pakistan on the Sarabjit case.

Sarabjit Singh, entered in Pakistani records as Manjeet Singh, was caught in 1990 and charged with involvement in a string of bomb blasts in Lahore, Kasur and Faisalabad, which killed at least 14 persons. A native of Bhikiwand near Amritsar, the prisoner claimed he had strayed across the border accidentally. But the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in 2005. In April 2006, he appealed to President Pervez Musharraf for clemency, which he promised to consider favourably after appeals from Sarabjit’s family and the Indian government.

President Musharraf is said to have finally turned down the appeal a day after he pardoned Kashmir Singh, another death row prisoner who had been languishing in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison for 35 years, far beyond the maximum jail term for any offence.

The release of Kashmir Singh was severely questioned in Pakistan, especially after he crossed back and declared he had spied for India.

But Pakistanis were more angered when the body of Khalid Mehmood, a Pakistani, who died in a Gurgaon jail, arrived on the Wagah border days after Kashmir Singh returned to India.

In an indication of the public mood in Pakistan, Federal Human Rights Minister, who worked hard for the release of Kashmir Singh, said he would examine Sarabjit’s case and take it up if there was “even the smallest indication of his innocence,” but he added “I have no sympathy for terrorists.”

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