An Indian diplomat urged Pakistan to spare the life of an Indian spy who faces possible execution for involvement in the killing of 27 people in bomb attacks. The man, Sarabjit Singh, has spent 18 years on death row after being sentenced to capital punishment for involvement in two bomb attacks in the eastern city of Lahore in the 1990s. He was to be hanged on April 1, but President Pervez Musharraf delayed his execution for a month following a request from New Delhi. Indian diplomat S.K. Reddy met with Singh at a jail Saturday and later told reporters that his government and the people of India wanted Pakistan to “sympathetically consider” their request and pardon Singh. “I think he has not confessed to the crimes,” Reddy said, adding that Singh had wrongly been convicted. “We are making a request to government of Pakistan, and so is ... his family, that he should be released.” Reddy said members of Singh's family would also travel to Pakistan to ask authorities to spare his life. New Delhi was preparing to free 64 Pakistanis being held in India, he said. Pakistan and neighboring India have a history of bitter relations and both sides often arrest each other's citizens. __
