On Saturday night, Dalbir Kaur passed away. She was the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who was given the death penalty for espionage by a Pakistani court in 1991 and died in Lahore in 2013. At Bhikhiwind in Punjab, her final rituals was performed.
After a few drinks, Sarbjit Singh, a farmer from Bhikhiwind in Punjab close to the India-Pakistan border, unintentionally crossed the boundary. But in 1991, a Pakistani court gave him the death penalty.
After being held in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for 22 years, Singh was battered by his fellow inmates and transported to the hospital. Following an assault on him on the jail grounds in 2013, Singh remained comatose for five days before being diagnosed as dead by medical professionals at Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital. He had suffered significant head injuries.
His older sister Dalbir Kaur had fought the system throughout his 22 years in prison to get her brother released.
Dalbir Kaur had consistently asserted that Singh, her brother, was innocent and had accidentally strayed into Pakistan at the time of his detention. She also visited her brother in Pakistan. Then, the Ministry of External Affairs requested that the Pakistani government launch an investigation into Singh’s death, and his sister, Dalbir Kaur, made a similar request. She stated: “There is no need for an investigation if the government itself organised the attack. However, if Sarabjit was attacked without the authorities’ knowledge, then an investigation is unquestionably required.”
