Pakistan rights activist files fresh mercy plea before Asif Ali Zardari for Sarabjit

Attari: Pakistan leading human rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday said he had recently filed a fresh mercy petition to President Asif Ali Zardari to save Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh.

On arriving Attari, Burney told the media that in the petition the President of Pakistan he has sought commutation of the death sentence of Sarabjit to life imprisonment so that he could safely be repatriated to India to join his family members.

Talking about the practice of death sentence in India and Pakistan Burney said that the government of both the nations should stop it forthwith.

Burney said Sarabjit has already served more than 21 years of his life in solitary cell of the prison.

Burney said he was deadly against the terrorism but he strongly favored that prisoners in Pakistan facing death sentence should be granted clemency as this act of government would never encourage terrorism.

Burney said Sarabjit has already served more than 21 years of his life in solitary cell of the prison. "Moreover the person, who is on death row, dies daily and Sarabjit Singh is facing the predicament for more than last one decade, struggling between death and life. Hence there would be nothing wrong if his death sentence commuted into life imprisonment".

Burney met Sukhpreet Kaur, wife of Sarabjit, at Attari border on Indian side.

Sarabjit was arrested by Pakistan s army in 1990, accused of being an Indian spy and charged with plotting a series of bomb blasts in 1989 at Lahore and Multan.

He was tried by several successive courts and was awarded death penalty.

Sarabjit's sister says his brother was held on mistaken identity.

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