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Expressing “great anguish” at the death of its citizen Sarabjit Singh, who died after a vicious attack on him in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, Indian authorities unanimously slammed Pakistan for the outrage and demanded a thorough investigation into how a prisoner could be attacked within jail premises.
Singh’s killing will prove a further setback to the already strained India – Pakistan relationship and the fragile peace process which hinges on improved “people to people ties.” The Indian government has called the incident “a failure of the Pakistani state.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has strongly advocated a closer, less tense relationship between India and Pakistan, said, “The criminals responsible for the barbaric and murderous attack on him must be brought to justice,” while “particularly regretting” that the Pakistani government did not “heed the pleas of the government of India, Sarabjit’s family and of civil society in India and Pakistan.”
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said bilateral ties would be “hurt” by the killing of Sarabjit Singh, whom Pakistan called a “spy.” India has consistently maintained that Sarabjit’s conviction was a case of mistaken identity.
“This was, put simply, the killing of our citizen while in the custody of Pakistan jail authorities,” foreign affairs ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said Thursday morning. “We demand that the Government of Pakistan conducts a thorough investigation to identify those who were responsible, and ensure that they are punished,” the spokesman said.
“The shocking attack on Shri Sarabjit Singh highlights the need for concerted action by Pakistan to safeguard Indians in Pakistani jails,” the spokesman said.
Pakistani authorities have been hard pressed to explain how an Indian prisoner on death row in a Pakistani jail for over two decades could have been murderously attacked within jail premises. There has been no satisfactory explanation nor have any reports from any investigation into the incident been forthcoming from Pakistani authorities. There is a caretaker administration in place in both Islamabad and in Lahore (provincial Punjab government where the jail is located) because elections are due in Pakistan on May 11.
It is unclear how deeply relations between the two neighbouring countries will be hit, but for now it will certainly not be business as usual.