Chandigarh: Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh who was sentenced to death for spying by a Pakistan court in 1991 and passed away in 2013 in Lahore, has died on Saturday night.

Dalbir died at the age of 60 due to a heart attack. Her last rites were conducted today at Bhikhiwind in Punjab. Her final rites were performed by Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda, who played Sarabhjit in the Biopic of the same name.

Touched by the performance in the film, Dalbir saw her brother in Randeep. Both Randeep and Dalbir shared a great bond together.

History

For more than twenty years, Dalbir had been fighting to save her younger brother who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for being an Indian spy and for his alleged involvement in a series of bomb blasts in the country in 1990.

The family, however, rejected all charges and said that Sarbjit was a farmer from Bhikhiwind in Punjab near the India-Pakistan border, who mistakenly crossed over the border after having a couple of drinks.

They also argued that Sarabjit had inadvertently crossed the border three months after the bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 people.

Pakistan insisted that he was Manjit Singh and he was sentenced to death by a Pakistan court in 1991. They also produced a video, in which Sarabjit was seen confessing his involvement in the bomb blasts, which the family alleges, he was forced to admit under torture.

The Pakistan Supreme Court later upheld the death sentence. The death sentence was repeatedly delayed and Sarabjit was kept in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for 22 years.

Dalbir, Sarbjit’s elder sister was leading the efforts in India and internationally to free her brother.

Things took a tragic turn on April 26, 2013, when Sarabjit was beaten up by his inmates in the Lahore jail.

He was then rushed to Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital where he died after being comatose for five days due to severe injuries in the head.

Dalbir Kaur had always insisted that her brother, Singh was innocent and had strayed into Pakistan by mistake when he was arrested. She also went to Pakistan to see her brother.

Then Ministry of External Affairs had asked the Pakistani government to conduct a probe into Singh’s death, while his sister, Dalbir Kaur had also called for an inquiry into the case and said: “If the attack was planned by the government itself, then there is no need for an inquiry. But if Sarabjit was attacked without the authorities’ knowledge, then an inquiry is definitely needed.”

The relationship between Hooda and Dalbir was so strong that she had asked Randeep to give ‘kandha’ when she dies (offer his shoulder before taking the body to the cremation).

Parvasi Media Group