ISLAMABAD: After having crossed over to Pakistan via the Wagah border Wednesday afternoon, family members of Sarabjit Singh claim to have brought evidence which could help prove the innocence of the convicted Indian national.
Sarabjit’s family hopes to present the evidence to present the evidence to the families of the 1991 blast victims in Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad as well as to the Pakistani authorities while seeking clemency for him.
Entering Pakistan through Wagah —an arrival aired live on many private Pakistani TV stations— were Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet Kaur, daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, sister Dalbir Kaur and brother-in-law Baldev Singh. They will meet him at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpatrai prison.
Dalbir Kaur has made a request to the Indian high commission in Islamabad to arrange these meetings besides getting appointments from Pakistani president Musharraf, prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, PPP chairperson Asif Zardari and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to seek clemency for Sarabjit.
Poonam, in an emotional interview to the Pakistani media, said her father’s case was one of mistaken identity and he was neither a spy nor a terrorist but had accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory when drunk.
She said there were no fences on the Indo-Pak border at the time. “I have come to Pakistan with a hope that you people will pray for and facilitate my father’s release and that he will contentedly rejoin his family. We have sought permission for meeting president Musharraf and other leaders to expedite the process of papa’s release,” she said.
Dalbir Kaur said both the Indian and Pakistani governments should work hard to alleviate sufferings of the families of Indian and Pakistani prisoners so that peace and happiness could prevail in the region in the future. She said spying should not be considered a crime worth hanging a human being, adding there were many innocent prisoners who were mistaken as agents of Indian or Pakistani agencies in both the countries.
She said that families of these prisoners had paid a heavy price as their children lost their fathers and their wives were forced to live like widows despite the fact that their fathers and husbands were still alive.
