Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad: India has sought consular access to its national on death row in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh, saying executing him is "not the best way to deal" with the issue.

A request for consular access to Sarabjit, who officials here said will be hanged on April 1 after spending 17 years in jail for alleged involvement in 1990 bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan, has been sent to Pakistani authorities, Indian High Commission sources said.

It had been indicated to them that hanging him "might not be the best way to deal with the situation in the prevailing circumstances", the sources said.

Top officials at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail, including its Superintendent Javed Latif, said on Sunday that they had received the death warrant for Sarabjit and he would be executed on April 1.

Sarabjit's lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid said yesterday that there was "no legal option" left to save his client.

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Sarabjit could be saved only if President Pervez Musharraf granted him a pardon or if there was some "extraordinary understanding" between the Indian and Pakistani governments, Hamid said.

A mercy petition of Sarabjit, who Pakistan claims is Manjit Singh, was rejected by Musharraf on March 3. Sarabjit was sentenced to death in 1991.

His mercy petition was sent to Musharraf along with that of Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh, who was freed after spending 35 years on death row in Pakistani jails.

Indian authorities are engaged in efforts to convince their Pakistani counterparts to resolve the matter without executing Sarabjit, the official sources said.

Officials from the Indian High Commission were last granted consular access to Sarabjit in 2005.

To a spate of questions, Anand Sharma said "... It is a very sensitive issue. We can only request the Pakistan government to show some leniency."

"It has been our endeavour to ensure that those prisoners in both the countries who have completed their sentences are released for which a committee has been set up," he said.

The BJP asked the government to talk to Islamabad "sternly" to save the "innocent" person from the gallows.

The Opposition party had a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he had said that he was having "sleepless nights" when Indian doctor Mohd Haneef was arrested in Australia last year but was silent on the Sarabjit issue.

"When Haneef was arrested in Australia, the Prime Minister had said he was having 'sleepless nights'. But when an innocent Indian is facing death in Pakistan, the Prime Minister is having sound sleep," BJP vice president Mukhtar Abass Naqvi said.

Source : PTI