Sarabjit Singh (carom Player)

Sarabjit Singh Attwal (also spelled Sarabjeet Singh; 1963 or 1964 – 2 May 2013) (alleged to be Manjit Singh Rattu by Pakistan) was an Indian national convicted of terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court. He was tried and convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for a series of bomb attacks in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 bystanders in 1990. However, according to India, Sarabjit was a farmer who strayed into Pakistan from his village located on the border, three months after the bombings.

After a brief trial in the Lahore High Court (later directed to the Supreme Court), he was condemned and sentenced to death in 1991, but the sentence was repeatedly postponed by the Government of Pakistan. While in prison at Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore in April 2013, he was attacked by fellow inmates and died six days later at the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore.
On 14 April 2024, Singh's alleged murderer, Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, was attacked and killed by unknown masked gunmen near his home in Lahore.

Background and family

Singh was born in Bhikhiwind, located along the Indo-Pakistani border in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab, India. He was fond of wrestling and taking care of rare pigeons. He worked as a farmer on other's fields. He was married to Sukhpreet Kaur and had two daughters Swapandeep and Poonam Kaur. His sister, Dalbir Kaur, was working towards his release since 1991 till his death in 2013.

However, another woman named Baljinder Kaur disputed Dalbir's relation to Singh and claimed to be Singh's real sister. According to Baljinder, Singh was the third eldest of ten siblings and Dalbir was not their sister, but had happened to know Singh since 1989; "Dalbir Kaur assured us she had right links and would struggle for the release of Sarabjit on some conditions. We trusted her and let her pursue the matter, only to be pushed out of the picture." Dalbir added that she had nothing to prove her relation with Singh except offering to undergo a DNA test. She also claimed that Singh's real brothers, Charanjit and Harbhajan, were not allowed to light his pyre at his funeral and were "pushed back" by people at the cremation ground. Commenting further on Dalbir, she added: "People have been coming to the fore (after Singh's death) for cheap publicity. They were nowhere when I alone struggled for his release."

Arrest and prosecution

Sarabjeet was caught on an unmarked Indo-Pakistani border area in Pakistan and arrested by the Pakistan Rangers near Kasur. Singh and his supporters claimed 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. His sister said that the family launched a search but could not find any clue to his whereabouts for nine months. After a year they received a letter from Singh, informing them that he had been arrested in Pakistan as ''Ranjit Singh'', as he had no identification papers and had been charged by the Lahore police in the bombings. He was convicted of spying and carrying out the bombings and was given the death penalty.

Some sources say that he was initially arrested on charges of illegally crossing the India-Pakistan border. But after eight days, the Pakistani police charged him with involvement in the 1990 terror blasts at Faisalabad and Lahore. The authorities claimed that he was 'Ranjit Singh' and had been responsible for the four blasts which killed 14 people, and had been arrested while returning to India after carrying out the bombings. He was accused of working for the Indian Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency. He subsequently confessed on camera to the bombings.

It was later reported that Ranjit Singh was later apprehended in Canada, and later in Chandigarh in India.

Death sentence

In 1991 Singh was given the death sentence under Pakistan's Army Act. His sentence was upheld by the High Court Division and later by the Appeallate Division. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition to review his death sentence in March 2006 as Singh's lawyers failed to appear for the hearing. Singh said that his appeal had been dismissed by the Pakistan Supreme Court only because of lack of interest by his former lawyer.

Issues with prosecution

Singh had been arrested on the night of 30 August 1990 at the Kasur border for illegally crossing the Indo-Pakistani border. Eight days after, the police implicated him in the terrorist bombings. Burney also pointed out that the same magistrate had recorded the witness statements in all the four bombings, of which one had taken place at Faisalabad and the remaining three at Lahore, although the police investigations involved four different police stations and two different districts. He said four different magistrates should have recorded the statements. None of the statements recorded in front of the magistrate were taken under oath. Singh had been paraded before the witnesses in the absence of the magistrate, and the police had informed the witnesses that he was the bomber. This was confirmed by Salim's testimony.

An Indian origin British lawyer, Jas Uppal, campaigning for his release, pointed to several problems with the prosecution in the trial. These problems included:

* His identity was never verified or proved in court and no forensic evidence was provided at his trial to link him to the bomb attacks.
* The trial was conducted in English, which Singh does not speak or understand, and no interpreter was provided.
* There were allegations that he was tortured in custody and forced to confess.
* The trial was "fast-tracked".
* The main witness repeatedly changed his version of events.

After conviction

On 26 April 2008, the key witness Shaukat Salim retracted his statement during an interview with journalists. Salim's father and other relatives had been killed in the bombing. In court Salim testified that Singh had planted the bomb but later said that he made that statement under pressure from the police. Singh's lawyer, Abdul Rana Hamid, said that Salim's statements had no legal standing as they were never recorded in court.

Five of his mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and the President of Pakistan

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