Sarabjit Singh : A Disowned Child of India

A Disowned Child of India  

Sarabjit Singh or we should call  Manjit Singh after all this is the name Pakistan has give him to prosecute . What we all know about him... he is an Indian national convicted and jailed in Kot Lakhpat jail, Pakistan since 1990. He was convicted in Pakistan for involvement in the 1990 serial bomb blasts at Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 people. This is what Pak SC said in their verdict . But fact of the matter is he was never in Pakistan at that time.  Sarabjit  always claimed that he was a farmer  in village Bhikhiwind, located along the Indo-Pak border in Tarn Taran district of Punjab  and is a victim of mistaken identity, who strayed into Pakistan from his village located on the border, three months after the bombings, when drunk. He was sentenced to death in 1991, since then our Govt tried to negotiate with their Pakistani counterparts but all these efforts were for limited time and we did not even raised the issue in our diplomatic meetings, there was serious negligence on part of Narsimha Rao Govt.  but his hanging had been repeatedly postponed to cater the interests of Pakistan and it also made India on backfoot on this issue. Till date  Five mercy petitions  were filed on his behalf, in which Sarabjit maintained that he served twenty-two years of prison term for a crime he had not committed.

Nawaz Sarif and Musharraf assured India on their visits that they would release Sarabhit.  On 26 June 2012, it was reported that Pakistan's President had ordered his release on the basis of his petition filed on 28 May 2012. However, five hours later this pardon was revoked and it was claimed that another prisoner, Surjeet Singh, had been pardoned and not Sarabjit.. And now in April 2013, Sarabjit suffered serious injuries in an attack by the fellow prison inmates, and died on 2 May 2013 in the Jinnah hospital at Lahore.What will our Govt do this time... they did nothing when two of our Jawans  of Indian Army were  brutally killed. What are we expecting this time around, our Govt is just happy to get the body after post-mortem!!

There are hundreds of Sarabjit in Pakistani jails for more than 15 years now for spying and intelligence charges.Is there any effort to bring back these behind the scenes soldiers of India. The intelligence agencies of both the countries have been using spy service since independence and this is what happens to every spy. Govt is with you till you are caught and  if you are caught they would simply disown you. Story of Spy just remains breaking news for some days and then we move on. Here a question is , if our late Govt is going to honour this man of India ? Are you going to give National Respect which he deserves or just crocodile tears...!!

RIP