A day after the hanging of Afzal Guru, the Pakistani decision-makers are minutely going through Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s confessional statement to see if, at all, he “deserves presidential pardon”.
“The decision will be soon out. Expect it in the next few days. It is important that Sarabjit Singh has confessed to his role in bomb blasts that killed so many people,” a senior government official told this newspaper.
“If the President rejects Sarabjit Singh’s mercy appeal, it won’t be due to Afzal Guru’s hanging. This case has been there for a while,” he added.
The right-wing parties have been pressurising President Zardari to reject Sarabjit Singh’s mercy appeal since India hanged 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab.
After Guru’s hanging on Saturday, the right-wing groups have once again rallied to push for Sarabjit Singh’s hanging that has been put off indefinitely by the government.
The judicial process in the case of Sarabjit had culminated in the Supreme Court decision of dismissing Singh’s appeal to overturn the death penalty. He was named in the case as Sarabjit Singh, alias Manjeet Singh, since 1990.
Sarabjit’s latest mercy petition was filed before the President on November 11, hardly ten days before Kasab’s execution.
Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik has also hinted that decision on Sarabjit Singh’s mercy appeal will be made soon. “The decision will be made in the next few days”, he said in Islamabad.
According to the confessional statement, which makes part of the voluminous Supreme Court record, he said, “I was born in the Matha district of UP and was brought up in Agra by my uncle. We came to Bhikhi Wand Tehsil Patti, district Amritsar, Punjab (India) in 1972 and I studied up to Class 9. I was recruited by Indian Military Intelligence in the year 1987. I was sent thrice to Pakistan for spying on the Pakistan Army. Then RAW recruited me and I was sent for espionage on the Pakistan Army.
“During this process, I came to Pakistan 14 times and what information I got I told them. In January 1990, I was called by RAW deputy Shri Wastey and he trained me for doing terrorist activities in Pakistan. I was trained in explosions and detonators in Kotli of Chowk Rattan Singh. We were also trained in bomb-making. I was sent to Pakistan in April 1990 after training.”