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Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani jail, has filed a fresh clemency appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari. According to The Express Tribune, it is the fifth mercy petition by Sarabjit, who was condemned to death for his involvement in a string of bombings in Punjab in 1990. Sarabjit's fresh petition, signed by 100,000 Indians, urges President Zardari to reciprocate the release of Pakistani virologist Dr Khalil Chishty by the Indian government. Attached with the petition are two letters addressed to the president from the chief cleric of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, and caretaker of the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Syed Muhammad Yamin Hashmi. Sarabjit, 49, maintains that his was a case of mistaken identity, since even the FIR was not registered in his name. The FIR had nominated Manjeet Singh for carrying out four bomb blasts in different cities of Punjab , according to the petition. "I have spent 22 years in the prison for a crime I have not committed," asserts Sarabjit in his petition. Sarabjit's counsel, Owais Sheikh, said he had documentary proof that his client was in India at the time of bombings. "Manjeet Singh was, indeed, a terrorist but the authorities have mistaken Sarabjit for Manjeet," Sheikh claimed. In his letter to the president, Maulana Bukhari pointed out that Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur had met him personally and provided 'vital evidence' which proved the latter's innocence. "Sarabjit should be freed on humanitarian grounds, which will not only help in promoting goodwill between the two neighbours, but will also result in promoting communal harmony among Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of India," Maulana Bukhari wrote.

Death-row Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh files fifth mercy petition to Pak president