PTI

Islamabad, Jun 11: After Kashmir Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney has found another Indian on death row, Karpal Singh, languishing in a jail in Punjab province since 1992.

Burney, former Pakistan Human Rights Minister, said on Tuesday that workers of his organisation had come across Karpal in the course of their welfare work in prisons.

Karpal, who hails from Gurdaspur, was convicted of murder and destroying property in 1992 and is currently in a prison in Punjab province.

"Interestingly, while the case was registered in the railway station in Faisalabad, Karpal Singh was convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Lahore," Burney said on phone from London, expressing doubts about whether Karpal had been given a fair trial.

Burney had earlier facilitated the release of Kashmir Singh, also on death row, on March 3 this year after spotting him in a prison in Lahore, where he had been languishing for 34 years on charges of spying.

During his years in prison, Karpal's name had also been changed to Fateh Mohammed. Burney said his organisation is currently trying to locate Karpal's family in India. All that is known about Karpal's family is that his father's name is Das Singh.

Burney's revelation came at a time when a four-member Indian team of bilateral judicial committee on prisoners is touring Pakistan to visit the Indian nationals lodged in this country's jails.

Burney on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, urging them to commute the sentences of all prisoners on death row, including Indian nationals Karpal Singh and Sarabjit Singh, to life imprisonment.