India cremates convicted spy with full state honors
NEW DELHI, May 3 — India on Friday cremated with full state honors
convicted spy Sarabjit Singh in his hometown in the northern state of
Punjab amid mass outrage over the fatal attack on him by his fellow
inmates in a Pakistani jail last Friday.
Police gave a 21-gun salute as a mark of last respect to the 49- year-old, who succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Lahore in the wee hours of Thursday, before the funeral pyre was lit by his sister Dalbir Kaur in the presence of his wife Sukhpreet Kaur, and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam at Bhikhiwind village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.
Several Indian ministers, including Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, and Punjab’s Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal attended Singh’s funeral, apart from the ruling Congress party’s Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, as local TV channels beamed live footage of the emotional event.
Earlier this morning, Singh’s body was kept inside a coffin at a local school, draped in the national flag, where thousands of people paid their last respects.
Singh, who was on death row in Pakistan since 1991, died Thursday at Jinnah Hospital after being in a coma for nearly a week, following a brutal attack on him by his fellow inmates at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. His body was returned by Pakistan after hours of persuasion by India.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the attack on him and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
Singh was convicted of his role in bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Pakistan in 1990. He had denied any wrongdoing, and his family always insisted he was innocent and had strayed into Pakistan by mistake.
Source: http://www.nzweek.com/world/india-cremates-convicted-spy-with-full-state-honors-63152/
Police gave a 21-gun salute as a mark of last respect to the 49- year-old, who succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Lahore in the wee hours of Thursday, before the funeral pyre was lit by his sister Dalbir Kaur in the presence of his wife Sukhpreet Kaur, and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam at Bhikhiwind village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.
Several Indian ministers, including Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, and Punjab’s Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal attended Singh’s funeral, apart from the ruling Congress party’s Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, as local TV channels beamed live footage of the emotional event.
Earlier this morning, Singh’s body was kept inside a coffin at a local school, draped in the national flag, where thousands of people paid their last respects.
Singh, who was on death row in Pakistan since 1991, died Thursday at Jinnah Hospital after being in a coma for nearly a week, following a brutal attack on him by his fellow inmates at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. His body was returned by Pakistan after hours of persuasion by India.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the attack on him and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
Singh was convicted of his role in bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Pakistan in 1990. He had denied any wrongdoing, and his family always insisted he was innocent and had strayed into Pakistan by mistake.
Source: http://www.nzweek.com/world/india-cremates-convicted-spy-with-full-state-honors-63152/
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