MHA knew Pak was about to free Surjeet

Jun 28, 2012 - Namrata Biji Ahuja |

Age Correspondent

Surjeet Singh

Jolted into action by Pakistan’s dramatic U-turn on Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, top home ministry officials said Wednesday India had indeed sought the release of another Indian prisoner, Surjeet Singh, from Pakistan as early as last month.

The officials admitted it was Surjeet, not Sarabjit, over whom Pakistani authorities had given an assurance of an early release. This had been conveyed to the Indian delegation led by home secretary R.K. Singh which visited Islamabad last month.
Top officials said both Surjeet’s and Sarabjit’s case figured at the talks. Pakistan’s interior ministry had assured the Indian side Surjeet would be freed soon, and Sarabjit’s case would be “considered” positively, but no timeframe was given. A senior official said: “They (Pakistan) assured us Surjeet will be released within a week. No promise was given as far on Sarabjit’s case. So Surjeet’s release does not come as a surprise to us, we were expecting it.”
But the confusion on the Indian side after Surjeet’s release was announced has caused considerable emba-rrassment for the government, with fingers pointing at Pakistan for the “goofup”. On Wednesday, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna even publicly thanked Pakistan Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari on the move to release Sarabjit.

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