SARABJIT'S FAMILY RETURNS TO INDIA

Death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh's family on Tuesday said the Pakistan
government's reported decision to defer his hanging by three weeks indicated its
''positive attitude'' towards him.
Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, who
returned to India with Sarabjit's wife Sukhpreet Kaur and his daughters
Swapandeep and Poonam after meeting him, said she hoped that this time his death
sentence would be commuted into life sentence. On reaching the Indian territory,
Dalbir Kaur said that she would like to once again visit Pakistan if she was
granted visa.
Kaur, who met Sarabjit along with other family members at
Kotlakhpat jail in Lahore, said she spent 48 minutes with him after a gap of 18
years. ''I could not even hug my brother and he could not hug his daughters,
since he was kept separated by bars. It was very tough time for him when he met
his family members and he was struggling hard to hold back his tears,'' she
said.
''During the meeting, Sarabjit himself prepared tea for his family in
the jail and we took it with sweets. Later, he also offered us cold drinks,''
Kaur recalled. She said that she told the Pakistani media that Sarabjit had
crossed over to Pakistan inadvertently in 1990. ''Sarabjit is innocent and could
never commit a heinous act,'' she said.
Sarabjit has been sentenced to death
for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990. His
execution, scheduled for April 1, was deferred by 30 days by the Pakistani
Government, which has now again postponed the hanging by three weeks. Sarabjit's
younger daughter Poonam, who met him for the first time, said her family had
carried food to the jail for her father but could not share it with him.
She
said, ''everybody was crying after seeing him. My mother asked him to take my
name. He took my name and kissed me on my forehead. He even tried to hug me from
the other side of the bars.''