Burney files fresh mercy plea for Sarabjit to Pak Prez

Pakistan's former Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney today filed a fresh mercy petition to President Pervez Musharraf seeking clemency for Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in the 1990 blasts in Lahore and Multan

Islamabad: Pakistan's former Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney today filed a fresh mercy petition to President Pervez Musharraf seeking clemency for Indian national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in the 1990 blasts in Lahore and Multan. "The matter of Sarabjit Singh has become a suspicious case in view of the evidence that I have gathered," said Burney.

Burney said that the evidence gathered by him point out that Sarabjit`s name did not figure in any of the four FIRs registered by police in connection with the bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Punjab province. "The identification parade in which Sarabjit was identified was conducted in a police station and not before a Magistrate. The evidence in all four FIRs was recorded by one Magistrate and not by different Magistrates," he added.

"One of the witnesses, a man named Shaukat, has said that he was forced to testify against Sarabjit in court," Burney said. He also said that he would try to meet Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People`s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani to take up Sarabjit`s case.

Meanwhile, two daughters of Sarabjit have written a letter to US President George W Bush, addressing him as "uncle" and urging him to intervene and save their father from the gallows. Poonam and Swapandeep, who do not even recall having ever seen Sarabjit, have sought Bush's intervention to save their father from being hanged on May 1.

The letter has been sent to President Bush just ahead of the Lahore visit by Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and both daughters along with another relative on Wednesday. The letter has urged the US president to see the whole issue from the perspective of a father.

"Uncle, our father entered Pakistan territory in 1990 by mistake in a drunken state and has not done anything to warrant death," the letter from the girls states. They have pointed out how their father became a victim of mistaken identity and was subsequently sentenced to death for causing the death of 14 people in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990.

Sarabjit is identified in Pakistan as Manjit Singh. His family in Punjab disputes this identity saying he has nothing to do with terrorism. "We have never seen our father as we were too young when all this happened. Our father was the sole breadwinner of the family and has been falsely implicated," the sisters said.

The letter comes at a time the family is trying to lobby through all channels to seek clemency for Sarabjit. On Friday, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had issued a fresh appeal to Islamabad to grant clemency to Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds. There has not been any official response from Islamabad to Mukherjee's appeal.

(With inputs from IANS)

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