PAK TURNS DOWN INDIA’S REQUEST TO RELEASE SARABJIT
Islamabad November 28:
Pakistan has turned down India’s request to release Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Pakistan in 1990, a news report said today.
India’s demand was turned down yesterday on the concluding session of the two-day talks between Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Kamal Shah here. However, the joint statement issued by the interior ministry did not mention the issue, sources told the Dawn newspaper. According to the Pakistani daily, sources said the issue was on the meeting’s agenda and after thorough discussion Pakistan did not accept India’s request for Sarabjit’s release.
Gupta, during a separate briefing to some Indian journalists at the Indian Embassy, said the matter remained under discussion but the Pakistani side did not give any final word on it, the paper reported. The Pakistani side was of the view that since there was no such law in Pakistan to commute death sentence into life imprisonment, the Indian request could not be entertained, the daily said. The Indian team argued that Singh, who has been in jail for the past 17 years, should be released on humanitarian grounds.
Islamabad November 28:
Pakistan has turned down India’s request to release Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Pakistan in 1990, a news report said today.
India’s demand was turned down yesterday on the concluding session of the two-day talks between Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Kamal Shah here. However, the joint statement issued by the interior ministry did not mention the issue, sources told the Dawn newspaper. According to the Pakistani daily, sources said the issue was on the meeting’s agenda and after thorough discussion Pakistan did not accept India’s request for Sarabjit’s release.
Gupta, during a separate briefing to some Indian journalists at the Indian Embassy, said the matter remained under discussion but the Pakistani side did not give any final word on it, the paper reported. The Pakistani side was of the view that since there was no such law in Pakistan to commute death sentence into life imprisonment, the Indian request could not be entertained, the daily said. The Indian team argued that Singh, who has been in jail for the past 17 years, should be released on humanitarian grounds.
