Pakistan backstabbed India, says Sarabjit's sister

The sister of Sarabjit Singh, the death row prisoner who died on Thursday, accused Pakistan of backstabbing India and said she would fight for 'other Sarabjits' languishing in Pakistani jails.

An emotional Dalbir Kaur, who has been fighting for the release of Sarabjit, said successive governments in the country failed to bring back her brother who was a victim of mistaken identity.

"They backstabbed Atal Bihari Vajpayee first. Now they backstabbed (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh. They have now attacked India's emotions by killing my brother. My brother has become a martyr for the country," she told reporters in New Delhi.

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"(Pakistan President Asif Ali) Zardari killed my brother for (victory in) elections," she alleged, adding,, "I will fight for the 'other Sarabjits' languishing in Pakistani jails."

She said that she has been raising the issue of Sarabjit since 2005 but no steps were taken by the government for his release. "If the steps had been taken, he would have been alive now," she said.

Kaur also claimed that a Pakistani human right activist had demanded at least Rs 2 crore for the release of her brother.

"If I had given Rs two crore..., my brother would have been alive now. The person demanded Rs 2 crore for the release of my brother. When I said that I am from a poor family, that person said if you cannot give Rs 25 crore, you will have to give at least Rs 2 crore."

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"That person told me that if you gave the money in the morning, Sarabjit will be released in the evening and if you give the money in the evening, he will be set free the next morning," he alleged.

Kaur said that Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has assured her all help and that Sarabjit will be honoured.

She also said that her brother had been dead even while he was in hospital in Lahore, and doctors and nurses had laughed at them. "When we were almost in hysterics and we asked hospital authorities how Sarabjit is, they laughed at us. Nurses, doctors at the Pakistan hospital laughed at us because they knew he was dead. Pakistan murdered him", she said.

Forty-nine-year-old Sarabjit died of cardiac arrest in a Lahore hospital in the wee hours on Thursday after being in comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by fellow inmates in a high-security Pakistani jail.

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