The Pakistan government on Monday 28 April postponed the date on which the Indian national Sarabjit Singh was to be hanged. This is for the second time that the date for hanging Sarabjit, accused of carrying out bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1991, has been deferred. Earlier, it was planned that he will be hanged on 1 April, but the execution was postponed for one month.

 

Dalbir Kaur, Sarabjit’s sister, offered her thanks to the Pakistan government for this decision and claimed that she had full faith in the generosity of the government. At the same time, she added that she will not leave Pakistan until her brother was freed. The decision to defer Sarabjit’s hanging came after former Pakistan Prime Minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif requested the government not to hang Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds.

 

Nawaz Sharif had also requested the Indian government to free Pakistani prisoners from Indian jails. Former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, who is championing the cause of Sarabjit, said that he will request President Musharraf to forgive the Indian national. There was a speculation already that the hanging of Sarabjit will be deferred after Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Pakistan in May.