Singh's lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed said the apex court rejected the review petition with regard to the death sentence awarded to Singh in connection with a bomb blast at Yakkigate in Lahore in April 1990 in which three persons were killed.

The court said the review petition had been filed too late.

Another review petition in connection with three more bomb blasts in Pakistan's Punjab province in 1990 for which also Singh, 40, has been awarded death sentence is still pending before the apex court.

"Now the only way out appears to be to file a mercy petition before General Pervez Musharraf seeking his pardon," Rana said.

The confirmation of the death sentence sent shock waves in Singh's native Bikhiwind village, 45 km from Amritsar, on the Indo-Pak border.

A devastated Dalbir Kaur, Singh's sister, said she would request President A P J Abdul Kalam to hold a dialogue with his counterpart in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at the earliest since that country's Supreme Court had given two days to Singh file a mercy petition before the president.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday sought government intervention to save Singh.

"If the government is convinced that he is innocent and that he has been a victim of mistaken identity, it should move ahead to save him," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.

However, Pakistan Law Minister Wasi Zafar Friday said Musharraf had no power to pardon Singh.

"As per the Supreme Court judgement in a previous case, the president has no power to pardon," Zafar said adding, the only avenue left for Singh was to reopen the case with new evidence rather than filing a mercy petition before Musharraf.

Sukhpreet Kaur (L), wife of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, displays his photograph as she sits alongside his sister Dalbir Kaur, who holds a letter from Singh at their home in Bikhiwind, about 40 km from Amritsar.

Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

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