By Xinhua
Islamabad : An Indian prisoner will be released in two days after spending 35 years in Pakistan’s death cell, the News Network International (NNI) news agency reported on Friday.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has accepted a mercy petition from the Indian national Kashmir Singh, who had been sentenced to death on espionage charges, said the report.
Kashmir Singh was arrested in 1973 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan and soon afterwards was sentenced to death by a military court martial in Lahore under the Secret Act on espionage charges.
Kashmir Singh, who was 26 at the time of his arrest, is now an old and disabled man, the Human Rights Minister of Pakistan Ansar Burney was quoted by NNI as saying.
Singh’s plight began over three decades ago, when after losing his job in Amritsar Police in Indian Punjab. He began to smuggle materials from Pakistan to India in order to earn money to feed his family, NNI said.
While smuggling materials from Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan to India, Singh and an accomplice were arrested in Rawalpindi in 1973.
Ansar Burney moved a mercy petition to Musharraf on behalf of Singh, who signed the petition and ordered his release and repatriation.
Ansar Burney is in contact with Singh’s family and making arrangements for his return to India and for his rehabilitation in India.