Indian brutality on Pak prisoner

Monday, May 06, 2013 – Sarabjit Singh was a terrorist and spy arrested by Pakistani officials in 1990. He was tried and convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for a series of bomb attacks in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 bystanders, in 1990. After the trials in Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he was sentenced to death in 1991. Five of his mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and the President of Pakistan.

While in prison, on 26th April 2013, he was attacked by fellow inmates and admitted in Jinnah Hospital, Lahore where he died on 2nd May 2013. Sarabjit’s wife, sister and two daughters were allowed to visit him in the hospital. India demanded to shift Sarabjit Singh to India to provide him better medical services which was declined by Pakistan as best possible medical care was being provided to him.

On May 3, in what was a tit-for-tat assault, a 52-year old Pakistani prisoner named Rana Sanaullah Haq, who was serving a life term in a jail in Jammu, India, was attacked on the head by Indian inmates, suffering serious injuries, and was reported to be in critical condition. Sanaullah was admitted to the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu and his condition was reported to be serious.

Soon after the attack on Sarabjit Singh, Indian media as usual started a heinous campaign against Pakistan. Before launching its tirade against Pakistan, Indian authorities should realize that Sarabjit Singh was a terrorist, who after long legal trials in High court and Supreme Court of Pakistan, was found guilty of carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990. At that time, the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘cross-border terrorism’ were not known to the most of the world. So India is the inventor of terror sponsoring into Pakistan.

While casting aspersions on Pakistan, India must take into account the plight of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails is need to be highlighted as there are many examples of Pakistani prisoners who died in police custody or suffered severe physical / mental torture in Indian jails.

There is no doubt that attack on Sarabjit Singh by inmate prisoners is a condemnable incident, but Indian response to this incident is not a responsible one, as a Pakistani prisoner was attacked by inmate prisoners in Jammu as well and his condition is said to be critical.

Sarabjit Singh was a terrorist by all counts, but there are certain quarters in media, who are dictating their media representatives / anchorpersons to call Sarabjit Singh a ‘spy’ not a ‘terrorist’.

It is ironical that another Indian spy, Surjeet Singh, who was released last year on humanitarian grounds, on his return to India, admitted to BBC in an interview that he had spied for India, made 85 trips to Pakistan, and always brought secret documents. He confessed to having recruited Pakistanis for terrorism. More importantly, he also admitted that Sarabjit Singh was not only an Indian spy but a terrorist. This frank admission to an international news organization of repute, not made under duress is proof enough of the terror campaigns launched by India against Pakistan in the 1990s. India loses the high moral ground it has adopted.

(Sultan M Hali)