By IANS,
New Delhi : India urged Pakistan to take a “sympathetic and humanitarian” view in the case of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner on death row whose mercy petition was turned down by the Pakistani Supreme Court Wednesday.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters that while the government was aware of media reports about the Pakistan Supreme Corut rejecting Sarabjit Singh’s review petition, details of the judgement were still awaited.
He acknowledged that the prisoner’s fate had touched a nerve in India. “Sarabjit Singh’s case has touched sentiments of many people in India who have been following this case,” he said.
Krishna said India has and will continue to appeal to Pakistan to remove Sarabjit Singh from death row.
“We have consistently urged the government of Pakistan to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view in this case. It is our hope that they will find it possible to do so,” he said.
Sarabjit has been convicted of staging four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that claimed 14 lives. His family contests the death sentence, saying he had strayed into Pakistan in a drunken state in 1990 and had nothing to do with the blasts.