Sarabjit Singh: He spent 22 years in Park Jail before being killed by inmates

Sarabjit Singh died in a Lahore hospital six days after being attacked in prison (file photo)

New Delhi:

Death row Sarabjit Singh spent time in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail after being found guilty of espionage and terrorism offences. 22 years until he was attacked and killed by a prisoner in 2013. 11 years later today, one of the attackers, Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, was shot dead in Lahore by unidentified bike-borne attackers, local media reported.

Who is Sarabjit Singh?

Sarabjit Singh Attwal was born in Bhikhiwind on the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district of Punjab. He and his wife Sukhpreet Kaur have two daughters – Swapandeep and Poonam Kaur. From 1991 until his death in 2013, his sister Dalbir Kaur lobbied tirelessly to secure his release.

He was tried and convicted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court for a series of bomb attacks in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990 that killed 14 bystanders. He was also convicted of terrorism and espionage charges. However, India maintains that Sarabjit Singh was a farmer who strayed into Pakistan months after the blast.

In 1991, the court sentenced him to death. But Pakistan has repeatedly delayed the sentencing.

attack

Mr Singh spent a harrowing time in the high-security prison until April 26, 2013, when he was attacked by other inmates, including Amir Sarfaraz Tamba. Tamba is reported to be a close aide of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed.

He was admitted to Jinnah Hospital in Lahore with severe brain injuries, spinal fractures and was in a coma after a group of prisoners attacked him on the head with sharp metal pieces, iron rods, knives, bricks and tin pieces. Doctors warned he was unlikely to recover.

His sister and wife were allowed to visit him in hospital and returned to India after doctors said his coma was irreversible.

On April 29, 2013, India called on Pakistan to release Singh on humanitarian grounds or allow him to come to India for treatment. But Pakistan has repeatedly rejected these demands.

die

He died in hospital of a heart attack on May 1, 2013, six days after the attack.

His body was flown to India on a special plane and Indian doctors performed a second autopsy on him in Pati, near Amritsar. Doctors concluded he was attacked “with the intention of killing someone.”

Singh’s vital organs, including his heart and kidneys, were removed, doctors said, adding that this could be part of Pakistan’s first autopsy.

An initial autopsy report reportedly said Mr Singh suffered massive internal bleeding from a head injury. “Sarabjit Singh had a five-centimetre-wide wound on the top of his skull that appeared to have led to his death,” said a member of the medical committee who conducted the autopsy in Lahore on condition of anonymity.

Doctors reportedly said he also suffered minor injuries to his face, neck and arms.