CHANDIGARH: Eleven Punjabi youth, lodged in a jail in Dubai and on the death row, in the United Arab Emirates on charges of murdering a Pakistani youth are likely to walk free from prison soon, after blood money is exchanged with the deceased's family.
Eleven Punjabi youth belonging to Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Barnala, Gurdaspur, Patiala and other parts of the State had gone to Dubai to work. They had a scuffle with a Pakistani youth Mohammed Ijaz, in which he died. The youths were convicted by a UAE court last year and sentenced for murder.
A Punjabi NRI SP Singh Oberoi, who is a hotelier, based in Dubai, and runs an NGO in Punjab called Sarbat Ka Bhala Trust, came forward to help the Punjabi youths. Talking with Express, SP Singh said, "I finally managed to contact the family of the deceased Pakistani youth in Peshawar in Pakistan.They said they would pardon the youth if they are paid blood money as per shariat law.
Besides the deceased's parents and two brothers there is no other claimant for the blood money.On February 27 the deceased's father will attend court and make a statement. We expect the sentence to be dropped with a few years of jail. The blood money has been set at 2 lakh dirams, which is Rs 60 lakh in Pakistani currency."
The fight between the youths and the Pakistani national was over liquor trade. The youth are presently lodged in Al-Aweer Detention Centre for Men in Dubai. BOX: The Punjab youth on death row are: Dharamvir Singh and Kulwinder Singh of Ludhiana, Tarsem Singh of Amritsar, Satminder Singh of Barnala, Chander Shekhar of Hoshiarpur, Jagjit Singh of Gurdaspur, Chamkaur Singh of Malerkotla, Harjinder Singh of Mohali, Gurpreet Singh of Patiala and Harpreet Singh and Ajay Kumar of Nawanshahr.