He was hailed as a martyr, given a 21 gun salute at his funeral, even a Bollywood movie has been produced depicting his life. But now the Indian government says Sarabjit Singh was no hero, but just a “petty smuggler”.
Sarabjit Singh of Bhikiwind town near Amritsar died in Pakistan in May 2013 after being attacked in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail where he had remained incarcerated since 1990.
He was a death row prisoner in Pakistan, convicted for carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistani cities. But Sarabjit’s family claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity.
Pakistani establishment believed he was a spy who worked at the behest of India’s external spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Sarabjit was successfully prosecuted and the trial court verdict of death sentence was upheld by the Supreme court of Pakistan.
Sarabjit’s family oscillated between hope and despair at every tiny development related to his case all these years, with his sister Dalbir Kaur single handedly bringing her brother’s case to the national attention.
Many say what life couldn’t give him, death compensated him for all that.
Sarabjit’s body was flown to Amritsar international airport after he died in a Lahore hospital in Pakistan. The government of India made special arrangements to then fly his dead body from Amritsar airport to his home town Bhikiwind in an Indian Air Force helicopter. He was given a grand farewell with a state funeral attended by the Punjab chief minister and several other political leaders, complete with a 21 gun salute.
The state government of Punjab gave government job to his elder daughter, Sumandeep Kaur, and a compensation of Rs. Ten million ( AUD 200,000).
In May this year, a Bollywood movie based on Sarabjit’s story released in which former Miss World Aishwarya Rai played the role of his sister.
But, the ministry of external affairs, while responding to a query under the Right to Information law, has said that Sarabjit himself had admitted that he indulged in petty smuggling.
“During consular access provided by government of Pakistan on 30/8/2005, Shri Sarabjit Singh revealed that he was indulging in petty smuggling to earn livelihood. On one such trip he was apprehended by Pakistani Army near Kasur border,” reads the RTI response.
