Outrage in India after beaten spy dies in Pakistan
Source: Agencies |
May 3, 2013, Friday
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INDIANS expressed outrage at the Pakistan government yesterday over the death of a convicted Indian spy who had been attacked with a brick by two fellow inmates in a Pakistan prison, a development New Delhi said has damaged relations between the longtime rival countries.
Sarabjit Singh was attacked last Friday and had been comatose and on a ventilator for days before he died early yesterday at Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, according to a Pakistani foreign office statement in Islamabad.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government would arrange to bring Sarabjit Singh's remains home and for last rites to be conducted in consultation with his family. In a statement, he called it "particularly regrettable" that Pakistan did not heed pleas to take a humanitarian view of the prisoner's case and allow him to return after he had served 20 years in prison.
Singh was arrested in 1990 after bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan, that killed 14 people. He was convicted of spying and carrying out the bomb blasts, and the death sentence he received was upheld in Pakistani superior courts.
His family maintained Singh was innocent and had entered Pakistan inadvertently from his hometown of Bhikiwind in northern Punjab state bordering Pakistan.
Pakistan's foreign office said the government was completing all formalities to hand over Singh's remains to the Indian high commission in Islamabad as early as possible.
Owais Sheikh, Singh's lawyer in Pakistan, said Singh was fatally wounded after a big struggle. "And as he has been brutally murdered that is very sad, I can share my condolences with the family and the whole Indian nation on this sad moment," he said.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three major wars since they achieved independence from Britain in 1947.
India's External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said yesterday that relations between India and Pakistan "have been hurt by this terrible tragedy."
"For the present, I can only say that it is a terrible psychological and emotional setback to all of us and I believe to what we have been trying to do in terms of creating greater cohesion between people of India and people of Pakistan," Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi.
Rajnath Singh, president of the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, demanded that India scale down the level of diplomatic ties with Pakistan. "The Indian high commissioner in Pakistan should be called back for the time being until Pakistan gives credible assurances that it will not allow its territory to be used to promote terrorism against India and that all Indian prisoners are safe in Pakistani jails," he said.
Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur, who visited him in the Lahore hospital early this week, yesterday called for snapping of ties with Pakistan. "It's a murder by Pakistan," she said.
Earlier this week, Kaur said she had asked the Indian government to take up with Pakistan the question of tightening Singh's security after New Delhi hanged Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man, in February. Singh had feared being attacked by some inmates.
Guru was convicted in a 2001 attack on India's Parliament that left 14 people dead. Several rights groups have said that Guru did not get a fair trial.
Sarabjit Singh was attacked last Friday and had been comatose and on a ventilator for days before he died early yesterday at Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, according to a Pakistani foreign office statement in Islamabad.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government would arrange to bring Sarabjit Singh's remains home and for last rites to be conducted in consultation with his family. In a statement, he called it "particularly regrettable" that Pakistan did not heed pleas to take a humanitarian view of the prisoner's case and allow him to return after he had served 20 years in prison.
Singh was arrested in 1990 after bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan, that killed 14 people. He was convicted of spying and carrying out the bomb blasts, and the death sentence he received was upheld in Pakistani superior courts.
His family maintained Singh was innocent and had entered Pakistan inadvertently from his hometown of Bhikiwind in northern Punjab state bordering Pakistan.
Pakistan's foreign office said the government was completing all formalities to hand over Singh's remains to the Indian high commission in Islamabad as early as possible.
Owais Sheikh, Singh's lawyer in Pakistan, said Singh was fatally wounded after a big struggle. "And as he has been brutally murdered that is very sad, I can share my condolences with the family and the whole Indian nation on this sad moment," he said.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three major wars since they achieved independence from Britain in 1947.
India's External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said yesterday that relations between India and Pakistan "have been hurt by this terrible tragedy."
"For the present, I can only say that it is a terrible psychological and emotional setback to all of us and I believe to what we have been trying to do in terms of creating greater cohesion between people of India and people of Pakistan," Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi.
Rajnath Singh, president of the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, demanded that India scale down the level of diplomatic ties with Pakistan. "The Indian high commissioner in Pakistan should be called back for the time being until Pakistan gives credible assurances that it will not allow its territory to be used to promote terrorism against India and that all Indian prisoners are safe in Pakistani jails," he said.
Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur, who visited him in the Lahore hospital early this week, yesterday called for snapping of ties with Pakistan. "It's a murder by Pakistan," she said.
Earlier this week, Kaur said she had asked the Indian government to take up with Pakistan the question of tightening Singh's security after New Delhi hanged Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man, in February. Singh had feared being attacked by some inmates.
Guru was convicted in a 2001 attack on India's Parliament that left 14 people dead. Several rights groups have said that Guru did not get a fair trial.
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