Sarbjit's kins get Pak visa for a week

Jalandhar, Apr 16 (UNI) Pakistan High Commission has granted visa to all the family members of the condemned Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on a death row in Pakistan, to visit him.

Sarbjit's sister Ms Dalbir Kaur, who is spearheading a campaign for his release, told UNI from Delhi that they had got the visa today evening whey they went to Pakistan High Commission after receiving a call from there.

She informed that all the five members of the family including herself, her husband Baldev Singh, Sarbjit's wife Ms Sukhbir Kaur and his two daughters Swapandeep Kaur and Poonam got the visas.

''The visas are valid for a month and we can stay in Pakistan for a week,''she said, adding that they would cross-over to Pakistan from Wagah border in Amritsar district on Sunday.

For the release of Sarbjit, who is languishing in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, she said the family would be meeting Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan People's Party head Asif Ali Zaradari and would also try to meet President Musharraf Earlier in the day, Ms Dalbir Kaur met Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid Sayeed Ahmad Bukhari, who had promised her to appeal to Pakistan President Pravez Musharraf to pardon Sarabjit Singh on humanitarian grounds.

She said Sayeed Bukhari had told her that he would send a letter to President Musharraf and would also try to speak to the President on phone to request him to either pardon Sarbjit or if there were some legal hassles then commute his death sentence into life imprisonment.

The family is also visiting Ajmer tomorrow to pay obesiance at Dargah Ajmer Sharief and to seek the blessings of Khawja Moinuddin Chishti for the early release of Sarabjit Singh.

Sarabjit Singh was sentenced to death for his alleged involvment in bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990 and was scheduled to be hanged on April 30.

UNI DP HS SB RK2045