Friday 3 May 2013

Sarabjit Singh

Sarabjit Singh was held guilty by the Pakistan Courts in connection with the 1990 Lahore bomb blast which killed 14 people, and sentenced to death. He was on death row in a Pakistan jail for 22 years.

I carefully studied the evidence in his case, and found it extremely weak. The main prosecution witness, Shaukat Salim, later retracted his statement which he had earlier given in Court, and said it was given under police pressure. The other evidence against Sarabjit was his alleged 'confession', but we all know how 'confessions' are obtained in our countries (by third degree methods).

I therefore sent 4 letters to the Pakistan President and Prime Minister mentioning all this and requesting that he be released and sent back to India. The first letter was sent through the then Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Mr. Shahid Malik, the second through Dr. Khalil Chishty (for whose release also I had made many efforts), the third through Mr. Ansar Burney, former Pakistan Minister and social activist, and the fourth through someone else.

I also mentioned in my letters that apart from the merits of the case, Sarabjit had been on death row, not ordinary confinement, in jail, for over 21 years, with a damocles sword constantly hanging over his head, and this would make anyone go mad. I therefore pleaded that mercy should be shown to him and he be set free (some of my letters to the Pakistan President and Prime Minister are on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in). I quoted from Portia's speech in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice that justice should be tempered with mercy.

There was no acknowledgement to any of these letters.

Now that Sarabjit is dead I can only express my deep sorrow. In my view both Dr. Khalil Chishty and Sarabjit were victims of the prejudiced mindset of most people on both sides of the border, most Indians regarding Pakistanis as devils, and most Pakistanis regarding Indians as devils (when the truth is, as I have been repeatedly saying, 99% people of all countries and communities are good, though they are often befooled by some wicked people).

The only difference between the cases of Dr. Chishty and Sarabjit is that while Dr. Chishty is alive ( though after undergoing 20 years hardship ) and back home in Karachi (I often speak to him on telephone), Sarabjit is dead.

This again reinforces my belief that only reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh under a strong, secular, modern minded government, which does not tolerate religious extremism, whether Hindu or Muslim, can bring peace and prosperity in our sub-continent

13 comments:

  1. We need to start by being confident in ourselves and then helping Pakistan & Bangladesh to becoming stronger and more capable.

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  2. Reunification of India can only happen when all people become Atheists.

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  3. I think this unfortunate event also teaches another lesson:
    "Sentenced to death" must be abolished.

    A Judge who is like our katju pronounced death for Sarabjit singh. This
    case went till Supreme court which confirmed death sentence to Sarabjit singh.

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  4. Sir,

    I strongly agree with u regarding unification of India,Pakistan & Bangladesh.Unification will definetly bring harmony to people of all the regions.It is big step to towards development and i hope there will be any terrorism.

    But i see there are so many hardships in front of all us.

    1)All the countries are ruled by namesame democratic and mostly coalation governments.They can not any right decision at right time.

    2)The idea of unification is completely new thing to 90% population in all these parts of world due to the negative mindset.

    3)The amount of corruption should be reduced
    4)People should be educated towards betterment

    ans so on ..the list goes...

    But i sincerly pray to God, at one day unification should happen.After all these parts divided by British,some of the selfish leaders at that time.

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    Replies
    1. Reunification can come alive when people become broadminded and leave shackles of religion and run behind spirituality

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  6. Pawns in political one-upmanship and intrigues!
    However your passionate obsession , as I 'd call it - of Indo-Pak-Bangla unification is utopia and beyond.
    Where the hell do we find a secular government to administer the recalcitrant people?

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  7. You don't talk about the shameful manner in which our own Supreme Court dealt with Afzal Guru against whom nothing but circumstantial evidence and confession before a police officer was there and in the name of the nasty theory of 'collective conscience of the nation being shocked' condemned him to death and the Government also very cruelly hanged him without even giving opportunity to his wife and relatives to have last interview and did not hand over his body even to them. But cry hoarse about the unreliability of evidence against Sarabjit Singh and point fingers at their Supreme Court too.

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  9. Esteemed Sir,
    Thanks for your informative and meaningful post.I am floored by your idea of reunification of India,Pakistan and Bangladesh.WE WILL BECOME A WORLD POWER only if sane political will persists
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  10. http://writersamas.blogspot.in/2013/06/blog-post_14.html

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  11. Sir you have blocked me on twitter. Kindly unblock. My handle @lalitadvani

    ReplyDelete
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