Shocked by the U-turn by Pakistan on the release of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner on a death row in Pakistan on terrorism charges, his family decided to hold a protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar Thursday to seek his release.
Sarabjit’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, who has led the campaign for his release in the last few years, said that the family will hold a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Family members and other supporters Wednesday evening took out a silent candle-light protest in this Punjab city, 150 km from Chandigarh, to urge the Pakistan government to release him.
Pakistan had done a flip-flop late Tuesday after earlier announcing that Sarabjit’s death sentence had been commuted by President Asif Ali Zardari and that he would be released.
Later, the presidential spokesman said that instead of Sarabjit, another Indian prisoner, Surjeet Singh, who has been languishing in Pakistani jails for over three decades on spying charges, would be released.
Sarabjit’s family claims that he had inadvertently crossed in Pakistan in an inebriated state August 1990 and was arrested there. He hails from Bhikhiwind village along the India-Pakistan border, 280 km from Chandigarh.
He was later identified as Manjit Singh and accused of planting two bombs in Pakistan which claimed 14 lives. He was sentenced to death by Pakistani courts even though his family here claimed that he was completely innocent.