Pakistan will hand over the personal belongings of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who died in a brutal attack inside a jail five months ago, to India next month.
In August, Indian officials had formally requested Pakistani authorities to facilitate the return of Sarabjit’s clothes and other belongings – retained by officials of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore – to his family.
“We are going to handover his (Sarabjit’s) personal belongings soon,” spokesman for Interior Ministry Omar Hameed was quoted as saying.
The administration of Kot Lakhpat Jail has already transferred the items to the Interior Ministry.
“We have handed a copy of the Holy Quran, three other holy books, a rosary, five sets of clothes, a sleeping mattress, a pitcher, a blanket and shoes to the Interior Ministry,” an unnamed jail official said.
The move came after Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur requested Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to get back his belongings.
Following this, New Delhi requested Islamabad to return his belongings and the money he had earned doing prison work.
On May 2, Sarabjit succumbed to head injuries he sustained when several prisoners attacked him within the jail.
Sarabjit Singh had been sentenced to death for involvement in a series of bombings in Lahore in 1990. India had maintained that Sarabjit, a farmer from a village located along the border, had strayed into Pakistan in an inebriated condition.
