ISLAMABAD, 11 September 2005 — An Indian prisoner facing the death sentence yesterday admitted he was responsible for a series of bomb attacks that killed several people across eastern Pakistan.
The confession by Sarabjit Singh came weeks after Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed to him in 1991 on charges of spying for India’s intelligence agency and carrying out the attacks.
Sarabjit’s family, however, has said he was not a spy and that he strayed accidentally into Pakistani territory in August 1990 while farming his land near a border town of eastern Pakistan.
Sarabjit’s wife and two daughters have threatened to commit suicide unless his life is spared.
“Yes, I carried out bomb attacks,” Sarabjit told state-run Pakistan Television.
Sarabjit’s photos have widely been published in Pakistani newspapers. It was not clear when and where Sarabjit’s statement was recorded.
However, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday he had taken no decision yet on the fate of the Indian national sentenced to hang on spying and bombing charges but added he was examining the case.
The Hindu newspaper, quoting unnamed Indian officials, reported earlier this week Pakistan told New Delhi it would not hang Sarabjit and he might even be freed after his sentence sparked protests in India.
Musharraf said in an interview aired on Indian news channel Aaj Tak that no decision had been taken but added the case was under scrutiny.
“This is a serious issue. The man has carried out terrorist attacks and killed people here. Now should I have sympathy toward him?” Musharraf said.
“Irrespective of what his family is thinking or how they are approaching their leadership in India, the man has killed people here, so one has to take a decision in a deliberate manner,” he said.
Musharraf also said he would look into the legal aspects of the case.
“One has to take the decision in a deliberate manner,” he said. “It needs to come to me with all its legal implications, then only will I take a decision. But I am basically a person who shows compassion and mercy.”
Musharraf made his remarks about a week before he is scheduled to meet with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.
The Indian media recently quoted the Indian premier as telling the prisoner’s family that he would discuss the issue with Musharraf.
Sarabjit’s family says the condemned man is a farmer who crossed the border into neighboring Pakistan 15 years ago while drunk.
His sister says her brother has been confused with a Manjit Singh, whom Pakistan blames for a series of bombings in Lahore in 1990. Pakistani officials said Sarabjit had confessed and was using Manjit Singh as an alias.
Islamabad and New Delhi are engaged in negotiations over Sarabjit’s fate.
The case comes against a backdrop of a slow-moving peace dialogue between the South Asian nations aimed at resolving their row over the future of the Himalayan region of Kashmir which has triggered two of their three wars.
435 Indian Prisoners to Be Freed
Pakistan will release 435 Indian prisoners early next week, ahead of a meeting between the leaders of the two South Asian rivals, to nudge forward their slow-moving peace process, officials said yesterday.
Pakistan and India routinely arrest each other’s nationals who stray into either country’s territory, and New Delhi on Friday said it would release 152 Pakistani prisoners on Sept. 12.
Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman for the government of the southern province of Sindh, said 371 of the 435 civilian detainees were fishermen.
They would all be handed over to the Indian authorities at the eastern border post of Wagah on Monday, he said.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement there were many more Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails than the number being released there, but did not give a figure.
