By IANS
Islamabad/New Delhi : Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row for his alleged involvement in Lahore and Multan bomb blasts in 1990, will be hanged April 1, a Pakistan daily said Sunday.
According to Urdu newspaper Daily Express, the death warrant for Sarabjit was received by authorities at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, where Sarabjit Singh has been held for the past 17 years.
The Pakistan Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against his death penalty, while President Pervez Musharraf rejected his mercy petition in March.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed about 14 people.
Meanwhile, his sister Dalbir Kaur has rushed to New Delhi from her village Bikhwind in Punjab in a last ditch effort to save him.
“I will try to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow (Monday) and request him to take up the matter with President Prevez Musharaff immediately,” Dalbir told IANS.
Sources in the government, however, declined to comment on the Pakistan media report, saying they have not been officially informed by the Pakistani authorities.
According to sources, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday, calling for the government’s intervention to save Sarabjit from the gallows.
“The news has come as a shock to me and I think I am the unluckiest sister in the world,” Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur said in a choked voice.
“It’s a case of mistaken identity,” she said. “Sarabjit is not Manjit Singh who is allegedly involved in four bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990.”
Following the rejection of Sarabjit’s mercy petition the interior ministry had informed the government of Punjab province to take steps to hang him.
Recently, another Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh was freed after spending 35 years on death row in Pakistani jails.