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India says Pakistan will not execute spy - report

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 00:40 CDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Pakistan has assured New Delhi it will not execute an Indian convicted of spying and a series of bomb blasts after his death sentence sparked outrage and demonstrations across India, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

India had been told Singh's case had become an "emotive issue"" and the sentence would not be implemented and that Singh may even be granted clemency and freed, The Hindu daily said, quoting anonymous Indian officials.

Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment. The report comes after the chief witness against Singh recanted and said the Punjabi farmer was innocent.

Singh's wife and some other family members have threatened to commit suicide if he is executed and supporters across India have protested, signed petitions and some have gone on hunger strikes.

Singh's family says he is a poor farmer from a border village who accidentally wandered into Pakistan in 1990.

The controversy comes at a time when India and Pakistan are trying to speed a slow moving peace process. The Indian government has pressed for clemency for Singh ahead of talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in New York this month..

Death sentences are often handed down but rarely carried out in Pakistan.

Source: REUTERS

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