BHIKIWIND (PUNJAB), May 3 � Sarabjit Singh, the Indian prisoner who died after a murderous attack in a Lahore jail, was cremated at his hometown here on Friday amid jostling crowds of tearful mourners, reports IANS.
His sister Dalbir Kaur lit the pyre as thousands of people gathered to pay their last respects to the man, condemned as a terrorist in Pakistan and a martyr in India who was given a State funeral.
Among those who placed wreaths on Sarabjit�s coffin were Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, Akal Takht chief Gurbachan Singh and Punjab�s Cabinet ministers.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who had met Dalbir Kaur in New Delhi on Thursday, walked up to the cremation ground and placed a wreath on the coffin. He stood next to the coffin for a while with other leaders.
Sarabjit died on Thursday in a hospital in Lahore, six days after being attacked in the Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Before the mortal remains of Sarabjit were consigned to flames, teary-eyed people - men, women, old and young, children and VIPs - were part of the last journey of a man who went through torture and despair for 23 years in Pakistani prisons, trying to prove that he was innocent.
A contingent of Punjab Police reversed its arms and fired thrice in the air as a mark of respect to the 49-year-old who is said to have mistakenly crossed into Pakistan in 1990.
As Dalbir Kaur went around the coffin to pour water from an earthen pot, his family members, including wife Sukhpreet and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, sobbed uncontrollably.
The man, who spent nearly 23 years in uncertainty in Pakistani prisons, in death went from being an ordinary farmer from a poor rural family to a national hero.
