India has again requested Pakistan to release Sarabjit Singh  who is a death row prisoner in Lahore Jail. At the same time India also praised Pakistan for the release of Surjeet Singh.
“I have seen media reports about the impending release from imprisonment in Pakistan of Surjeet Singh…I welcome this decision and further renew our request to the president of Pakistan to release Sarabjit Singh who has been in custody for over two decades. He is serving a death sentence,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters  in New Delhi.
Krishna’s statement came after Pakistan’s apparent volte-face about releasing Sarabjit Singh Tuesday night. On June 26, the Pakistani media had carried reports of Sarabjit getting a presidential pardon. However, Islamabad clarified late evening that it was not Sarabjit but Surjeet Singh, his fellow inmate at Kot Lakhpat jail, who would be released.
Yesternight, Pakistani Presidential Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, in a statement given to an Indian media outlet, has clarified that the prisoner, whose death sentence was converted to life imprisonment, was actually “Surjit Singh†and not “Sarabjit Singh.â€
“I think there is some confusion. First, it is not a case of pardon. More importantly, it is not Sarabjit. It is Surjit Singh, son of Sucha Singh. His death sentence was commuted in 1989 by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the advice of then premier Benazir Bhutto,†said Babar.
Admitting confusion over the issue, Krishna said he has also seen media reports and stressed that there is no absolutely no official communication from Pakistan on reports of Sarabjit Singh’s release.
Krishna, however, renewed request to the Pakistan government to take a lenient and humanitarian view and release Sarabjit Singh, who has been in custody for over two decades and is serving a death sentence for his alleged involvement in a string of blasts in the Punjab province in 1990.
“As you are aware that government of India has consistently urged the government of Pakistan on several occasions to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view on the case of Sarabjit Singh,” said Krishna.
“I also appeal to the government of Pakistan to release all Indian nationals who have completed their prison term. I request the release of all Indians who are serving jail sentences in Pakistani prisons,” he added.
Pakistan claims that Sarabjit Singh, who is known as Manjit Singh there, was involved in staging four blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990, which claimed 14 lives. His family however, maintains that Sarabjit, a resident of border town of Bhikhiwind, had strayed across the border in an inebriated state in August 1990.
Sarabjit;s relatives claim he is a simple farmer who was arrested after he strayed across the Pakistani border from his northern frontier hometown of Bhikiwind in Punjab state while drunk in 1990. His wife Sukh Prit Kaur, a resident of Bhikhiwind village of district Tarantaran, claimed he left to plough his fields near Wagah Border on August 28, 1990, but never returned.  She said the family launched a search but could not find any clue to his whereabouts for nine months and finally they received a letter from Sarabjit informing them that he was caught by Pakistani border forces when he mistakenly crossed the border under the influence of liquor.
Surjeet has been in Pakistani custody for over 30 years. He was captured near the India-Pakistan border on charges of spying during the era of military ruler Zia-ul-Haq and was on death-row too, but his sentence was commuted to life-imprisonment in 1989.
“I think there is some confusion. First, it is not a case of pardon. More importantly, it is not Sarabjit. It is Surjeet Singh, son of Sucha Singh. His death sentence was commuted in 1989 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the advice of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto,” presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar was quoted as saying by Geo News.