Sarabjit's sister plans trip to Pakistan

Amritsar, Mar 11: In a desperate bid to rescue Sarabjit Singh from the gallows, his sister Dalbir Kaur has expressed her desire to go to Pakistan to make a last ditch effort to save her brother whose review petition challenging the death sentence awarded to him by a lower court was rejected by the Pakistan Supreme Court early this week.

''I will personally appear before President Pervez Musharraf and ask for clemency for my brother who has been falsely implicated,'' she said while addressing media persons here today.

If permitted to go across the border, Dalbir said she would meet a cross section of the people there to garner support in her efforts to save her brother.''Good relations between India and Pakistan and driving buses across borders are all meaningless exercises, if Sarabjit, who is innocent, cannot be saved,'' she said.

Sarabjit is condemned to death in Pakistan for allegedly spying for India and carrying out four bomb explosions in that country.

Mrs Dalbir Kaur has already sought an appointment with President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for taking up the Sarabjit issue with Pakistan. She has also sought legal advice from BJP general secretary Arun Jatley.

She said she would build a public opinion through peace marches in Punjab and outside for saving her brother. She also plans to hold a march to the Wagah border along with the wife and two daughters of Sarabjit, where she would submit a memorandum to the Pakistan authorities with an appeal to President Musharraf to remit the death sentence of her brother.

The family of Sarabjit along with their well wishers and supporters had held a demonstrations in the border town of Bhikhiwind yesterday to protest against the verdict of the Pakistan Supreme Court. The family, particularly the two daughters of Sarabjit, are a shattered lot after Pakistan's- apex court rejected one of the four review petitions.

UNI