Family on mission to save Indian prisoner in Pakistan
PAKISTAN: Relatives of an Indian prisoner due to be hanged in
Pakistan over a deadly bombing arrived in the rival nation Wednesday on
a last-ditch mission to save him from the gallows.
The wife, daughters and sister of Sarabjit Singh said they hoped to
meet him in prison and would file an appeal to President Pervez
Musharraf asking him to grant clemency to the condemned man. "I will be
meeting my husband for the first time in 18 years.
He mistakenly crossed the border when he was drunk, he is not a
terrorist," his wife Sukhpreet Kaur told reporters. "We will file an
appeal to the President of Pakistan." His daughter Swapandeep, who was
three weeks old when her father was arrested, said she hoped a peace
process launched between the nuclear-armed nations in 2004 would help
save his life.
"The friendly relations between Pakistan and India are strengthening
and we are hopeful that these relations would be very useful in the case
of my dad," the 18-year-old said.
Sarabjit is due to be hanged on April 30 after being convicted of
involvement in blasts in 1990 that killed four people in the Pakistani
city of Lahore. Pakistani television has shown footage of his alleged
confession.
But he and his family insist that he is the victim of mistaken
identity and his family say he inadvertently crossed the border in a
state of inebriation. THURSDAY, AFP |