LAHORE, April 23: “We are hopeful that the government of Pakistan will release Sarabjit Singh after reviewing his death sentence and our visit to Pakistan will not prove futile.”Sarabjit’s wife Sukh Prit Kaur, who was accompanied by his two daughters Swapan Deep and Poonam Kaur, a sister and a paternal uncle, expressed the hope while talking to Dawn at Gurdwara Dera Sahib after her arrival in the city via Wagah on Wednesday.

The family has been given seven-day visa to visit Lahore and Nankana Sahib.

They appealed to President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan government and the people to help them and release Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds.

Sarabjit, who was arrested in August 1990, has been facing charges of spying and involvement in bomb blasts.

“Sarabjit had no links with any terrorist or spy organisation and our East Punjab government has also confirmed it,” claimed Dalpir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit, who is actively pleading the case for his release.

She welcomed the resolve of new government in Pakistan to convert sentence of all death row prisoners into life term, hoping the appeal to release Sarabjit would also be accepted.

“I will first meet Sarabjit, listen to his plight from his arrest to the imprisonment, inclusion of his name in FIRs, evidences produced by the Pakistani government to validate his arrest and the quality of life he spent in jail, so that both governments should be informed of the situation,” she said.

Dalpir further said she would also inquire from her brother if he was provided sufficient opportunity to prove his `innocence’ before a court of law.

She claimed that former Pakistani caretaker federal minister Ansaar Berni had assured the family of Sarabjit’s release.

Recalling the circumstances of Sarabjit’s `sudden disappearance’, his wife Sukh Prit Kaur, a resident of Bhikhiwind village of district Tarantaran, claimed he left to plough his fields near Wagah Border on August 28, 1990, but never returned.

She said the family launched a search but could not find any clue to his whereabouts for nine months and finally they received a letter from Sarabjit informing them that he was caught by Pakistani border forces when he mistakenly crossed the border under the influence of liquor.

She said she kept receiving Sarabjit’s letters for some years but there was a communication gap for the last few years.

Poonam Kaur, who has just taken matriculation examination, told Dawn that she had prepared a sketch of her father which she would present to him during the visit to Kot Lakhpat Jail.

“I feel that father is with me whenever I see his photographs and had never thought I would meet him in a jail,” she said.

Swapan Deep, who is in her final year of graduation, said she missed her father during family and school functions.

She hoped his father would accompany them on their way back.

An Indian High Commission official in Pakistan, who visited the family, seeking anonymity, told Dawn that Delhi had already submitted a written request on Monday last to the Pakistani government to allow the family of Sarabjit to see him but so far they had received no response.

“The family is on seven-day visa and we are expecting that the government would consider the request favourably,” he said.

He said Sarabjit’s sister had also submitted a similar request to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, besides seeking permission to visit Islamabad on the same visa.

Meanwhile, Dalpir told Dawn by phone that the family had yet to receive any ‘positive’ response from the high-ups on their appeals.