India seeks Sarabjit release, pact to curb drug smuggling inked

ISLAMABAD: India on Tuesday asked Pakistan to release death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh as the Home Secretaries of the two countries held talks here on terrorism and security and signed a pact to curb drug smuggling.

The demand for release of Sarabjit, an Indian national languishing on death row since he was convicted of alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province in 1990, was raised by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, sources said.

"Talks are continuing on the issue of Sarabjit. There has been no decision as yet," a senior Indian official told the media.

Sarabjit's execution was put off indefinitely following Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's intervention in May.

During the talks which were extended till tomorrow, senior Indian and Pakistani officials signed a memorandum of understanding on "drug demand reduction and prevention of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs/psychotropic substances and related matters", said Indian High Commission spokesman Sanjay Mathur.

Sources said the agreement will enable the sharing of information between the anti-narcotics forces of the two countries.

The two countries also agreed that the main source of narcotics in the region continued to be Afghanistan, from where drugs are trafficked to India and Pakistan, the sources said.

The talks between the Indian delegation led by Gupta and the Pakistani side headed by Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, being held as part of the fifth round of the composite dialogue process, will continue till Wednesday morning. Earlier, the talks were scheduled to conclude on Tuesday.