Type: Parliament Questions and Answers

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state :-

(a) whether the family of innocent Sarabjeet Singh, who has been under imprisonment for many years in Pakistan has been mocked by informing the family that he is going to be released;

(b) if so, the reason therefor and whether Government have had any discussion with Pakistan’s Government on this issue;

(c) if so, the details thereof; and

(d) if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER: THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRI E. AHAMED)

(a) to (d) On June 26, 2012, Pakistani media reports had suggested that Shri Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national, on death row in Pakistan, was to be released. However, later on the same day, Pakistani government authorities clarified that it was another Indian prisoner, Shri Surjeet Singh, and not Shri Sarabjit Singh, who was to be released. Subsequently, Shri Surjeet Singh was released from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore and repatriated to India on June 28, 2012.

Government has consistently urged the Government of Pakistan, on several occasions, to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view in the case of Shri Sarabjit Singh. Prime Minister was assured by President Musharraf during their meeting in New York in 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that he would look at the question of clemency to Sarabjit Singh in a humanitarian way. On June 27, 2012, External Affairs Minister (EAM) renewed the request to the President of Pakistan to release Sarabjit Singh. The issue was also taken up with Pakistan during the Foreign Secretary level talks held on July 4-5, 2012 in New Delhi. EAM again raised the issue with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in a meeting on the sidelines of a Conference on Afghanistan, in Tokyo, on July 8, 2012.

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Pakistan
South Asia