Another Indian prisoner on death row in Pakistan

THEN AND NOW: Kirpal was arrested by Pakistan Police on charges of spying and engineering bomb blasts.

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Keywords: Indian Prisoner , Sarabjit Singh

Hoshiarpur: Kirpal Singh was caught by Pakistani forces in 1991 after he crossed the border in a drunken state and is on a death row in a Pakistani jail. Now former Pakistan human rights minister Ansar Burney says he will take up Kirpal's case.

Little Shivani has never seen her grand uncle Kirpal nor does she fully understand what fate awaits him in Pakistan. But she knows he is some one important for the family.

"I know him. I have only seen him in pictures and he is in jail in Pakistan. He will be hanged there," Shivani says.

Kirpal is lodged along with another Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.

Burney has urged the Pakistan government to convert his death sentence into life imprisonment and that has given his family some hope.

"We now have some hope that he might be released. Burney sahebwill take up the issue of Kirpal Singh,"Ashwani, nephew of Kirpal, says.

Family members say Kirpal crossed the border accidentally in 1991 under the influence of liquor.

He was arrested by the Pakistani police and charged with spying and engineering bomb blasts.

He was later acquitted of the charge of engineering bomb blasts but the death sentence still stays.

Hoshiarpur Member of Parliament Avinash Rai Khanna is planning to raise the issue in Parliament.

"I assure them that I will try my level best to get him released," Khanna says.

Kirpal's mother and two brothers died waiting for him. His wife left long back. With no immediate family following up, Kirpal's case is certainly not as high profile as Sarabjit's.

(With inputs from Parminder Singh Barian)