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| Fresh hope for Sarabjit Singh | | | | Fresh hope has kindled for the life of Indian prisoner on death row in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh to be spared. This time it has been due to a move in the ruling political circles in that country for commuting capital punishment in general into life imprisonment. Sarabjit Singh, belonging to Punjab state in India who according to his family members had unintentionally intruded into Pak territory was arrested and tried by the courts in Pakistan as Manjit Singh for allegedly exploding bombs in Rawalpindi and some other towns of Pakistan killing few people. The cry for clemency to Sarabjit Singh is being raised within India as well as from some sections in Pakistan itself. His case is stated to be that of a mistaken identity. In the past petitions for clemency to Sarabjit Singh have been rejected by the President of Pakistan, Parvez Musharraf. He was to be hanged on March 30. But in view of Indian government's last ditch request to spare the life of Sarabjit Singh, his execution was postponed for a month and the fresh date of May 1 was set for his hanging. Now if the move floated by the new ruling dispensation in Pakistan for commuting the death penalty in all cases to life imprisonment gets through within a week, which is very much expected, Sarabjit Singh will be the main beneficiary. However, after Pakistan takes the revolutionary humanitarian step to convert all death sentences in that country into life imprisonments there will be a pressure on government of India from various quarters in the world as well as from human rights protagonists within the country for following the suit and taking similar step in this country by commuting all death sentences into life imprisonment. In that case Mohammad Afzal Guru, who is on death penalty in India for his involvement in the attack on Indian Parliament and some demands for whose clemency have been made in the past from certain quarters, may also get the reprieve. In normal course taking any such decision of clemency to Afzal Guru and even commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment is a hard task for the government of India to take, since it will be under attack from the opponents of being lenient towards an offender who waged a war on country's highest and most sacred constitutional institution. Any exchange for sparing the life of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan in lieu of India sparing the life of Afzal Guru could have to rational and logic, since Afzal Guru is an Indian citizen being punished by the law course in this country, while Sarabjit Singh is also an Indian citizen sought to be punished by a foreign country Pakistan. However, in case India also in general commutes all death penalties into life imprisonment, getting benefit of the same in the case of Afzal Guru will not create much problem for the Indian government, as any attack against this by the opposition will get blunt. |
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