LHC initiates judicial inquiry into fatal attack on Sarabjit

Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi appointed to conduct judicial probe into the attack on the death row inmate.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday appointed Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi as inquiry judge to hold a judicial inquiry into the killing of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh by his fellow prisoners in Kot Lakhpat jail.

Punjab caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi had earlier sent a letter to the LHC chief justice with a request to appoint a judge of the court to hold judicial probe into the incident soon after the injured Indian spy was admitted to hospital for treatment.

Justice Naqvi is expected to start his inquiry from Friday.

According to the prosecution Sarbjit Singh, resident of Bhikhiwind village of Amritsar, had illegally crossed the Indian border at Kasur on August 29, 1990 and was arrested on allegations of conducting four bomb blasts in three cities of Punjab including Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore on July 29, 1990 in FIR registered against Manjeet Singh. Sarabjit given death sentence under section of 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of Pakistan Penal Code and section 3 of Explosive Substance Act on August 15, 1991, a significant day as it is the day of independence of India.

Defending Singh, his counsel Awias Sheikh had maintained the stance that Singh was given sentence only on the basis of his confession statement which, according to him, was made before a TV camera and after being tortured, hence having no legal value.

Sheikh maintained till the end that Sarabjit’s case was one of mistaken identity. He sent several mercy appeals to President of Pakistan for his release on humanitarian grounds.

The lawyer had further argued that the FIR was registered against Manjeet Singh but prosecution forcefully presented Sarabjit as Manjeet Singh and got him convicted in a fabricated case.

Last week, after his death, the Indian daily The Hindustan Times quoted a senior Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official as saying that that Sarabjit was indeed an Indian spy who had had gone to Pakistan for an operation at the behest of the Indian spy agency.

The managing official later became the external intelligence agency’s chief.

“Sarabjit was an Indian spy in Pakistan. He managed to accomplish the task given to him but was caught while trying to flee,” the newspaper cited an intelligence source as saying.

The Pakistani government had maintained that he was an Indian spy, but Sarabjit’s family said he was a farmer who accidentally crossed the border into Pakistan while drunk.