Sarabjit's daughter is Punjab revenue official

The Punjab government Friday handed an appointment letter to Swapandeep Kaur, daughter of Sarabjit Singh, the Indian prisoner in a Lahore prison who was killed in an attack by fellow prisoners in May.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal handed over the letter appointing the 25-year-old Swapandeep Kaur as a naib tehsildar (revenue official).

Badal said that Sarabjit Singh was a martyr for the cause of the nation, having suffered endless agony in the Pakistani jail for being an Indian.

"The appointment of late Sarabjit's daughter as naib tehsildar is a humble tribute from the state government in recognition to his supreme sacrifice for the national cause. We have fulfilled our moral duty as it was a basic responsibility of every government to respect the heroes who had laid down there life for the national cause," Badal said.

Badal had, in May, promised to provide a naib tehsildar's job to Sarabjit's daughter. He said that Sarabjit's second daughter would be appointed a school teacher.

The Punjab government also gave Rs.1 crore to Sarabjit's family as financial assistance.

Sarabjit died May 2 in Lahore's Jinnah Hospital, six days after being brutally attacked with plates and sharp shards of tins by fellow prisoners in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail April 26.

He had been arrested in Pakistan in August 1990.

Pakistan accused him of being an Indian spy, and held him guilty of bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990 that left 14 dead. His family, particularly his sister Dalbir Kaur, who led the campaign to save him and bring him home, insisted he was an innocent man who crossed over to Pakistan inadvertently.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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