Sarabjit Singh has converted to Islam, claims Surjeet

Recently released spy claims Sarabjeet and another prisoner identified as Kirpal have converted to Islam.

Recently released Indian spy Surjeet Singh claims that Sarabjit Singh has converted Islam and is now known as Sarfaraz, The Indian Express has reported. Sarabjit is currently imprisoned at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail and has been sentenced to death for his alleged role in bomb blasts.

Surjeet was recently released from Kot Lakhpat after 30 years. The Indian national had been arrested by Pakistani police on charges of spying during the regime of Ziaul Haq.

In addition to the claim of Sarabjit’s conversion, Surjeet has also claimed that another Indian prisoner in Pakistan, Kirpal Singh, had also converted to Islam and is now known as Mohammed Din. He was speaking to the media at the information centre of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee during his visit to the Golden Temple.

Sarabjit’s sister, while confirming that she heard Kirpal be called by a Muslim name, has denied that her brother has converted. Dalbir Kaur said:

This is not true at all. Sarabjit was a Gursikh, is a Gursikh and will remain a Gursikh. He has kept photos of Sikh gurus in jail and a Sikh religious book. He regularly recites from that book.

Kaur said her brother had been addressed as Sarabjit or Manjit when she had last visited him in jail.

The dramatic events on Tuesday night had drained Sarabjit’s family after Pakistan announced that the Indian prisoner in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail — sentenced to death for his alleged role in bomb blasts – would be released after his sentence was commuted to life. Hours later, though, it was clarified that it was not Sarabjit but another Indian prisoner, Surjeet Singh, who was being released.