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The sister of Sarabjit Singh, the death row prisoner languishing in a Pakistani jail, on Friday met President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention for his release and demanded that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad visit him in the prison to check on his health.
Dalbir Kaur met Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and pressed for an immediate visit by the Indian High Commissioner to Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore where Sarabjit is lodged.
Kaur's meetings came against the backdrop of a letter written by Sarabjit to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in which he claimed that there was a threat to his life in jail and that
he was being served "wrong contents in the food (which is) deteriorating his health day by day".
"I have requested the President and Home Minister to ask the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to visit Sarabjit in jail," she told PTI.
She also demanded early release of Indian prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails who have completed their prison terms and a visa for her family to meet Sarabjit.
Kaur said she was hopeful after meeting Mukherjee and Shinde and demanded that a delegation from India should visit Sarabjit.
The 49-year-old, convicted and sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in a string of bombings in Pakistan in 1990 that killed 14 people, had maintained his innocence and said his was a case of "mistaken identity".