Know more about Sarabjit Singh-The victim of Indo-pak conflicts

New Delhi: Sarabjit Singh died of cardiac arrest in a Lahore hospital in the wee hours on Thursday after being comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by fellow inmates in a high-security Pakistani jail.Sarabjit Singh was an Indian farmer and a victim of mistaken identity, who strayed into Pakistan from his village located on the border. On the night of 28 August 1990, he was arrested by Pakistani border guards on the charges of illegally crossing the India-Pakistan border. But after eight days, the Pakistani police charged him with being involved in the 1990 terror blasts at Faislabad and Lahore.He was imprisoned in Kot Lakhpat jail, Pakistan since 1990.He was sentenced to death in 1991, but his hanging has been repeatedly postponed. Five mercy petitions were filed on his behalf. His sentence was upheld by the High Court and later by the Pakistan Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed his petition to review his death sentence in March 2006 as Sarabjit's lawyers failed to appear for the hearing.On 3 March 2008, the erstwhile President Pervez Musharraf rejected his mercy petition.On June 26 2012, the President of Pakistan decided to release Sarabjit but a few hours later, amidst condemnation by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamaat-ud-Da'wah clarified that the prisoner to be released was Surjeet Singh and not Sarabjit.Many efforts were made for his release. In 2009, the British lawyer Jas Uppal started an online campaign “freesarabjitsingh.com” to highlight his case and request human rights group to intervene on his behalf. In April 2008, a group of Pakistani students organized a march, seeking withdrawal of all official moves to pardon Sarabjit. In December 2012, an aggressive protest against Sarabjit Singh was observed in front of the Lahore Press Club, in which Indian flags were burnt by Islamists radicals.On 26 April 2013 Sarabjit was brutally assaulted by six prisoners in a Lahore jail. He was admitted to the Jinnah hospital with severe head injuries in a critical condition. He died in the wee hours on May 2.It has been reported that Sarabjit was threatened after Afzal Guru was executed in India in February 2013.