Fearing for life in Pak jail, Sarabjit Singh writes to Sonia Gandhi

Sarabjit Singh, the death row convict in Pakistan, has claimed that there was a threat to his life in jail.

Sarabjit, who is currently lodged in Kot Lakhpathrai Jail of Pakistan, has expressed the fear for his life in a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He has alleged that jail authorities were serving him "unhygienic" food, which was "difficult to eat", and he was being mistreated.

Sarabjit's counsel Awais Sheikh, who has recently filed a fresh mercy petition before the Pakistan President to commute the convict's death sentence, brought his letters to India.

He has sent different letters through Sheikh for Congress president Gandhi, sister Dalbir Kaur and daughter Poonam.

Sarabjit suspected that there were some "wrong contents in the food deteriorating his health day by day", and a severe pain was developing in one of his legs.

Sheikh claimed that during a meeting with Sarabjit recently in the Kot jail, he himself tasted the food which was of poor quality and couldn't be eaten by any human being.

Sarabjit also alleged that he was being "ill-treated" in the jail by staff as "taunting" by jail officials has become a routine matter.

He also alleged lack of medical facility inside the prison.

He has urged Gandhi to appeal the Pakistan government to grant visa to his family members, including his daughters and sister Dalbir Kaur to visit him, Sheikh said.

In a letter to his daughter Poonam, Singh has asked her to study hard.

Singh also wrote about the ill-treatment and unhygienic food being served to him to his sister Dalbir Kaur.

Panicked by the letter, Kaur urged Prime Minister Mamnohan Singh to direct the Pakistan based Indian High Commission to take up the matter with the jail authorities at the earliest to provide hygienic food and mandatory medical treatment to Sarabjit.

On July 4, Kaur had met the Congress chief seeking her intervention for his brother's release.

Sarabjit, 49, was convicted and sentenced to death for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Punjab in Pakistan in 1990.

On March 9, 2006, Pakistan Supreme Court had dismissed Singh's petition against the sentence for his alleged involvement in carrying out four bomb blasts at Lahore in 1990 that killed 14 people.

However, Sarabjit, during the trial, had claimed that he was a farmer on the Indian side of the border and strayed into Pakistan while he was drunk.