Yesterday, the two prime suspects in Sarabjit Singh murder case were acquitted by a district court and sessions court in Pakistan. Amir Tandba and Mudasir Munir were Sarabjit Singh’s inmates at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore and they tortured him to death in 2013. According to the Pakistani daily, the Dawn, the Additional District and Sessions Judge Moin Khokar ordered the release of Tandba and Munir after the witnesses withdrew their statements.
Singh breathed his last in a Lahore hospital after suffering from critical injuries in the head as he was hit by bricks, iron rods and other blunt weapons. He was then admitted to Jinnah Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Lahore in May 2013. Singh was sentenced to death on the charges of having an alleged involvement in a string of bombings in Pakistan in 1990-his sentencing came as a shocker to the whole nation.
Sarabjit Singh was arrested by the Pakistan Rangers near Kausr, an unmarked India-Pakistan border area in Pakistan. In his defense, Singh said that he strayed near the Pakistan border. 8 days after he was arrested, the Pakistan police falsely alleged him of having involvement in the 1990 terror blasts at Faisalabad and Lahore. He was also accused of being an agent of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
A lot of efforts were made from the Indian government for the release of Sarabjit Singh. His issue was taken up in both the houses of parliament in August 2005. The then Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh took up this matter with Aziz Ahmed Khan of Pakistan High Commission but nothing could be substantiated. Numerous petitions were also filed for his release, the fifth petition was filed on 28th May 2012 which had 1,00,000 signatures in it collected from across the country.
A British lawyer Jas Uppal in 2009 started an online campaign with the name of “freesarabjitsingh.com” and wanted human rights groups to intervene on his behalf. The most important thing in the whole case is how few of the Indian human rights activists who vouched for Afzal and Burhan didn’t ever give heed to this matter.
Liberals and self-proclaimed intellectual like ‘Gurmehar Kaur’ who shot to fame after she said, “Pakistan didn’t kill my father, war did” doesn’t seem to comment anything on it. The clowns from JNU who use to hold protests and show their love for Pakistan and raise slogans like ‘Afzal hum sharminda hai, tere kaatil zinda hai’ and ‘tum kitne afzal maaroge, har ghar se afzal niklega’ also don’t seem to come in the forefront.
It seems that the left-liberal groups don’t have any concern regarding Indians being brutally killed in the Pakistani offensive. There isn’t a single voice of condemnation that has come from these groups. Also, the section of Indian media that vehemently talks about human rights doesn’t even care to cover this development at all. There is little coverage on the part of Indian Media regarding this issue.
It is saddening to see the manner in which the Pakistani court has dealt with this matter. This clearly shows the inhumane approach of the Pakistan Judiciary as it did not hesitate in releasing the two prime suspects in Sarabjit Singh murder case.