Saturday, September 10 2005 10:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Amritsar: Family members of Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death in Pakistan, yesterday (Sept 9, 2005) expressed shock at the ban reportedly imposed by the Government of that country on their visit on the ground of law and order.

Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit, said she was informed by Lahore-based lawyer Abdul Hamid Rana on telephone that Pakistan vernment has imposed the ban on the entry of family of Sarabjit contending it could create law and order problem.

Quoting Rana, Kaur said she was informed that a section of newspapers in Pakistan carried news, which listed the reasons for the ban on the entry of Sarbjit Singh's family in Pakistan.

Pakistani newspapers said if the family of Sarabjit Singh arrived in Pakistan it may create unrest among the family of victims who were killed in a series of bomb blasts allegedly set off by him in Lahore in 1990.

She said another reason told by Rana was that lives of the family of Sarabjit could be at stake if they visit him at Kotlakhpt Rai Jail in Lahore.

Dalbir Kaur said she had a plan to apply for visa to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi but now after getting the news of ban the entire family in India was feeling depressed.

Abdul Hamid Rana was the lawyer of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan Supreme Court, which had confirmed his death sentence handed out by a trial court.

Sarabjit had nearly one and half-decade back inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan and was arrested by Pakistani border guards.