Islamabad/Chandigarh, June 24: Pakistan's Supreme Court Wednesday rejected the mercy petition of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who has been on death row for 18 years, after his lawyer failed to appear in court despite being specifically directed to do so.
Sarabjit has been convicted of staging four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that claimed 14 lives. His only option now would be to file a mercy plea before President Asif Ali Zardari, but given the current uncertain state of Pakistan-India ties, it would be hard to predict how he would react.
The court verdict, delivered by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Raja Fayyaz, left Sarabjit's family in Bhikiwind village in Indian Punjab distraught and they demanded that the Indian government intervene to save his life.
