Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi, in his personal capacity, has appealed to the President and Government of Pakistan to reconsider their decision regarding the release of Sarabjit Singh.
Qureshi has expressed concern and disgust at the way “wrong” news about Sarabjit Singh’s release was broadcast and later corrected by the Pakistan Government.
The Uttarakhand Governor said that for the past 20 years, Sarabjit Singh has been languishing in Pakistan’s jails and during this period, his family, friends and many human rights activists in India and Pakistan have been demanding his release on compassionate and humanitarian grounds.
“During the past few years, his case did not remain confined to the members of his family, but his release became a common wish, demand and desire of many peace-loving Indians, irrespective of caste, colour and creed, who have been dreaming of Indo-Pak friendship and harmonious relations between the two countries,” he said. Qureshi further said that instead of talking about “war and Jehad,” what was needed now was that both countries should together “wage a war against hunger, poverty, illiteracy, superstition, privation, disease, suffering and natural calamities.”
He said on Friday that only this kind of a Jehad could be waged and fought against the suffering and ills that plagued people in both the nations. The Governor said that he appealed to the Government of Pakistan that “in order to restore sanity and develop man-to-man contact”, it should release Sarabjit Singh without any delay and write a new chapter in the history of Indo-Pak relations where many earlier chapters have been inscribed in human blood.
He has expressed hope and belief in the wisdom of the Pakistan Government. “Sarabjit’s release will give strength to secular ideals and restore faith among minorities of the sub-continent,” said the Governor.
Src: The Pioneer