Srinagar: Senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah on Thursday asked Pakistan to act against the attackers of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Pakistani hospital after being comatose for nearly a week.
"Pakistan should act against those who were involved in attacking him. Pakistan should lodge an FIR against them and act as per the law of the land," president, Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Shah told reporters. Shah said Pakistan must return Singh`s body to his family so that they are able to conduct his last rites as per their customs.
Sarabjit died of cardiac arrest in a Lahore hospital in the wee hours of Thursday after being comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by fellow inmates in a high- security Pakistani jail.
Meanwhile, the separatist leader demanded the Indian government to return the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, who was hanged and buried inside Tihar jail on February 9, and also the body of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat.
Bhat was hanged and buried inside Tihar Jail in 1984 after he was convicted for murdering a police officer.
Shah said his party would support JKLF`s protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Friday to demand the return of the bodies. "The dead bodies should not be kept prisoners. Until they (Guru and Bhat) were alive, there was some meaning to keep them in jail, but why after their death? This is political vendetta at its extreme," he alleged.
Supporting the election boycott call given by hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Shah said the separatist should be allowed to campaign against voting.
"When the mainstream political parties are allowed to organise rallies for elections, we too should be allowed to go to people to tell them why not to vote," he said.
The state government led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should fight us politically, he added.
Shah also pitched for unity among separatist leadership and said he will continue with his efforts of uniting the two factions of Hurriyat.
PTI
