Sarabjit’s murder case: Pak jail official records statement

Lahore, December 12

A Pakistani jail superintendent today recorded his statement before an additional district and sessions judge, Lahore, in the murder case of Indian national Sarabjit Singh who was killed by fellow prisoners in 2013.

Two Pakistani death row prisoners — Amir Sarfraz alias Tamba and Mudassar — had attacked Sarabjit (49) in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore in May 2013, and killed him.

“Additional district and sessions judge Amin Haider today recorded the statement of the Kot Lakhpat Jail superintendent in the murder case of Sarabjit Singh. Two more witnesses have been summoned for the next hearing next week,” an official at the jail said.

He said the court proceedings in this case had been resumed after several months. The judicial commission led by Justice Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi of Lahore High Court had investigated Sarabjit’s murder case before the trial began at the sessions court Lahore. Naqvi had recorded the statements of some 40 witnesses in the murder of Sarabjit and submitted its report to the government which is yet to make public its findings.

Sarabjit’s family had not recorded their statements.

Tamba and Mudassar, in their statements to the commission, confessed to the crime and said they killed Sarabjit as they wanted to avenge the death of people in Lahore and Faisalabad blasts allegedly carried out by him. Both have been indicted in the murder case.

Sarabjit was awarded death for spying charges and killing at least 14 Pakistani citizens in bomb blasts in Punjab province in 1990. His family said: “He was the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border.” — PTI