An Indian national on death row in Pakistan convicted as a spy and for setting bombs that killed several people, could get mercy from the victims’ families, Pakistan’s foreign minister said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak in New York that the fate of Sarabjit Singh, currently in a prison in the northern Pakistani city of Lahore, could be decided by the relatives of those killed.
“Under Islamic law… a death sentence can be commuted into life sentence if the relatives of the dead agree,” Kasuri said.
This case “will become a test case in Pakistan itself”, he added.
Singh’s conviction and death sentence were upheld by Pakistan’s Supreme Court last month and prompted his relatives in India along with the government to call for a review of the case by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf is currently in New York with Kasuri for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
He is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss bilateral issues such as the dispute over Kashmir and possibly the fate of Sarabjit Singh.
Last week, Musharraf said in an interview that no decision had been taken on pleas he had received to revoke the death sentence.
“This is a serious issue. The man has carried out terrorist attacks and killed people here. Now should I have sympathy towards him?” Musharraf said.
“Irrespective of what his family is thinking or how they are approaching their leadership in India, the man has killed people here, so one has to take a decision in a deliberate manner,” he said.
At the same time, Musharraf added, “I am basically a person who shows compassion and mercy.”
Sarabjit’s relatives say he is a farmer from the Punjab state who crossed the border into neighbouring Pakistan 15 years ago while drunk and then was confused with a man named Manjit Singh, whom Pakistan blames for a series of bombings in Lahore in 1990.
Pakistani televised a confession by Singh on Sunday in which he said he worked for India’s foreign intelligency agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
“I have been an agent for RAW for the past three years … and I set off five blasts” in Lahore, Singh was shown as saying on television.
Hope for some form of clemency for Singh rose after India and Pakistan on Monday exchanged more than 500 jailed nationals, mainly fishermen and civilians, as part of an ongoing peace process. – AFP