BJP to Centre: Seek release of Sarabjit if Chishty is freed

New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) With a Supreme Court judge
pleading for the release of a Pakistani prisoner, the BJP
on Friday found it "odd" but said if the Centre were to
consider the request, it should make "fresh efforts" to secure
the release of Sarabjit Singh who is on death row in Lahore.
"It is odd that an SC judge is writing to the PM for
securing the release of a Pakistani prisoner, even in his
individual capacity," BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) spokesman
Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters while referring to the plea
made by Justice Markandey Katju to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh for the release of Khalil Chishty.
"In case the government decides to consider this
request, it must also separately secure the early release of
Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, by making fresh efforts."
The SC judge had sought the release of Chishty, a
micro-biologist from Karachi languishing in Indian jails for
the past 20 years, on humanitarian grounds under Article 72 of
the Constitution.
Sarabjit, who hails from Punjab, was convicted and
sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan in 1991 for his
alleged involvement in terrorist attacks there.