NEW DELHI: In the wake of relief to Khaleel Chisti, India will take up the matter of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner with Pakistan, during the Home Secretary-level bilateral talks later this week.
Earlier on May 10, the Supreme Court granted permission to Chisti to visit his hometown, Karachi, Pakistan. Sarabjit was convicted for his alleged involvement in serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990 and has already spent 22 years in Pakistan jails.
Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur had met Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday and requested him to ask Home Secretary R K Singh to raise the issue during the talks.
“The Home Minister has assured me that the Home Secretary will raise the issue of early release of Sarabjit during the talks with Pakistan. I am hopeful about a positive outcome in the meeting. I appeal to the Pakistan government to release Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds like India did in case of Pakistani virologist Khaleel Chisti,” she said.
Dalbir also told Chidambaram that India should take the advantage of a good relationship with Pakistan at the moment and try hard for Sarabjit’s release.
A day after Chisti’s order, Pakistan’s human rights activist Ansar Burney on May 11, 2012, wrote to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari requesting him to convert the death sentence of Sarabjit into life sentence as he had already spent 22 years in jail.