By IRNA
Islamabad : India said on Tuesday that hanging of its national Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990, will ‘impinge on the positive atmosphere currently existing between India and Pakistan’.
Pakistani officials say that Sarabjit will be hanged on April 1.
“News reports that Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh will be hanged on 1st April have been met with dismay in India,” an Indian High Commission statement said.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death in 1991 for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people.
His family denies he was a spy as claimed by Pakistan and insists he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory.
The Indian High Commission statement said that Sarabjit Singh’s imminent hanging was raised in the Indian Parliament both yesterday and today.
“Cutting across party lines, Members of Parliament urged that his life should be spared”.
The Indian Minister for External Affairs Tuesday appealed to the Government of Pakistan to treat Sarabjit Singh’s case with clemency on humanitarian grounds, it said.
In response to a letter sent to him by the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Prakash Singh Badal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured him that our request for clemency for Sarabjit Singh has been conveyed at the highest possible level in the Government of Pakistan, according to the statement.
“Today, Sarabjit Singh’s sister, Dalbir Kaur has sent a written appeal for clemency directly to His Excellency President Musharraf.
She has also requested the President for permission to visit Pakistan to meet with Sarabjit Singh in jail”.
It is hoped that appeals from Sarabjit Singh’s family, the Government of India and others would be given a chance to be considered from all angles, including by the new government expected to take office in Pakistan soon, the statement said.
The statement said the two governments have been working on several initiatives designed to lead to an improvement of the situation for prisoners of either country.
These include a new Agreement on Consular Access and setting up of a Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners.
The Committee met recently in New Delhi and the Indian judges are due to visit Pakistan in early April.
“The Government of India holds high hopes from such new institutional arrangements, as well as from the dialogue process with Pakistan, which it hopes very much that it can quickly resume,” the statement said.