Pak sends back Sarabjit's belongings, keeps jail diary

Sarabjit Singh's final set of belongings reached home on Thursday, at the border where his family had hoped in vain for 20 years to receive him free and alive. Pakistan sent 36 items in three boxes that belonged to him but did not return his personal diary which upset his family.

Sarabjit Singh's final set of belongings reached home on Thursday, at the border where his family had hoped in vain for 20 years to receive him free and alive. Pakistan sent 36 items in three boxes that belonged to him but did not return his personal diary which upset his family.

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A few months ago, inmates had killed the Indian death-row prisoner in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail where he was lodged as foreign spy. The family all along had maintained that he was a case of mistaken identity.

The district administration helped collect the boxes at the international border.

Led by Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and daughters, Swapandeep and Poonam, his entire family and the villagers of Bhikhiwind reached Attari to collect the belongings. His sister, who had led a two-decade campaign for her brother's freedom said she knew Sarabjit's diary would be missing.

"In that, he wrote about all the wrongs done to him in Lahore jail. I ask the Indian government to get the diary back," she said.

The belongings that Pakistan returned include clothes, shoes, blanket, a pair of spectacles, travel bag, prisoner suit, and Muslim holy book The Quran. The boxes were taken to Sarabjit's house in his native village.