Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh who was killed in Pak jail, passes away in Punjab

Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh who was sentenced to death for spying by a Pakistan court in 1991, passed away late on Saturday night. Kaur is known for her persistent campaign to secure her brother’s release from his conviction in 1991 till his death in 2013. Her last rites will be conducted today at Bhikhiwind in Punjab, as per ANI. 

Sarabjit Singh was tried and sentenced by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for being a part of a series of bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad in the year 1990, He died on May 2, 2013, after being brutally attacked by inmates in jail. Kaur negotiated with the Indian and Pakistani governments for 23 years to bring justice to her brother, who, she believed was innocent till the day he died. She was only able to meet him twice over the two decades before his untimely demise. 

Dalbir Kaur's fight to prove her brother's innocence

Sarabjit Singh was caught and arrested by the Pakistan Rangers in an unmarked Indo-Pakistani border area on August 28, 1990, near Kasur. Singh, who worked as a farmer went missing and the family launched a search, however, could not find any clue to his whereabouts for nearly 9 months. A year after his disappearance, the family received a letter from him, informing them that he had been arrested in Pakistan as 'Manjit Singh', and since he had no identification papers on him, he had been charged by the Lahore police in the bombings. Singh's family asserted that the arrest was a case of mistaken identity and that he was only a poor farmer who was drunk and had strayed over the border.

In 1991, Sarabjit Singh was convicted of terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death, however, the government stayed his execution for an indefinite period in 2008. Sarabjit’s sister was able to go visit him twice after much effort and narrated the inhuman treatment that was meted out to him by Pakistan authorities, including one visit where she saw him tied in chains. 

A few days after the death of convicted terrorist Afzal Guru, inmates in Pakistan attacked Singh in the Kot Lakhpat jail, leaving him in a comatose state. Sarabjit’s sister, wife and two daughters traveled to Lahore a third time after he was attacked but this time the distraught family were allowed just a glimpse from a distance of a comatose Singh. He passed away barely a few days later.