Sir: It is said that waiting for death is far worse than death itself but, perhaps, the ordeal of some people never ends even on their deathbed. Sarabjit Singh, a farmer from an Indian village near the Indo-Pak Punjab border, was arrested near the Pakistani side of the border in an intoxicated state on August 28, 1990. In the past, there have been occasions when villagers crossed the unfenced border by mistake, and here I make no mention of smugglers who do this frequently. However, eight days later, he was charged with involvement in the 1990 bomb blasts in Faisalabad and Lahore, which killed 14 people. He was sentenced to death based on the key witness testimony that Sarabjit planted the bombs. It is reported that the key witness, Shaukat Salim, retracted his statement in 2008; since then his father and other relatives have been killed. Singh always maintained his innocence, saying that he strayed across the border under the influence of alcohol. His petition against the death sentence was dismissed by the Supreme Court (SC) due to the non-appearance of his lawyer. His mercy petition was also rejected by then President Musharraf in 2008.
Singh had been imprisoned for the last 22 years — far more than the prevailing life sentence period in Pakistan. President Zardari tried to release him on humanitarian grounds in 2012 but, under intense pressure from religious groups, the decision was reversed within four hours. On Friday, Sarabjit was attacked by fellow prisoners with bricks and metal rods. If we put aside how the police investigates crime in the subcontinent and how witnesses are bought and sold, we have to see the Sarabjit case from a humanitarian viewpoint. He had already spent 22 years on death row waiting for death to come and now that he is literally brain dead, do we still need to keep him imprisoned? If Malala can be sent abroad even in an unstable condition, why can Sarabjit not be treated according to his family’s wishes? Whilst we may be biased against him, we should also ask who will hang the killers of the 50,000 Pakistani civilians and military personnel who have lost their lives in the last 10 years at the hands of religious extremists? Let him go even if he is in a coma. Let him die in the company of his family.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail,
Saudi Arabia