After languishing for 30 years in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, Indian national Surjeet Singh is set to return home to Ferozepur in Punjab in a week’s time. Human rights activist and Pakistani advocate Awais Sheikh told the media that the decision to repatriate Singh was taken at a meeting of Pakistan Punjab’s home department in Lahore on Wednesday. Sheikh, who is also a counsel of another Indian on death row in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh, said Pakistan will send Singh back in a week’s time. Surjeet Singh was arrested in 1982 on charges of spying and was given the death sentence.
Later, the then president of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaque Khan on December 8, 1988 had converted his death sentence into life imprisonment following an announcement of general amnesty by the government.
Paving the way for his release, the Punjab government this month had informed the Lahore High Court that Surjeet had completed his term and will be released soon.
