Amir Tanba - inmate who killed Sarabjit Singh in Lahore jail, shot dead

Lahore, April 14 (IANS) In what's being considered as an incident of targeted killing, unidentified gunmen on Sunday killed Amir Tanba, a key figure behind the killing of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail in 2013. 

Amir Tanba was outside his residence at Islampura in Lahore when at least two unidentified motorcycle-borne gunmen opened fire, injuring him critically.

The latest killing of Sarabjit Singh's killer Amir Tanba is being seen as a "revenge killing" done by hired killers.

According to local residents, Amir was critically injured by the gunshots and succumbed to his injuries even before he could be taken to hospital.

The locals also claimed that Amir had been receiving death threats for the last few days.

Amir, along with his fellow inmate Mudasir Munir, were accused of assaulting Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in April 2013.

It was reported that both inmates tortured Sarabjit Singh to death in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

But on December 15, 2013, a court acquitted both Amir and Munir after all the witnesses of the murder retracted their statements, leading to the release of the accused.

Inmates of the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, Amir and Munir attacked and tortured Sarabjit to death.

Sarabjit suffered severe head injuries from the torture done by blunt objects and bricks.

He was brought to Lahore's Jinnah Hospital and kept in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for at least five days.

Later, Sarabjit Singh was declared as 'dead' by the medical board of senior neurosurgeons.

Other reports also indicated that Sarabjit Singh died on the route from the jail to the hospital on the first day of his torture by inmates and that the matter was dragged further to cover-up on the actual incident.

Sarabjit Singh was convicted of terrorism and spying by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for his involvement in a series of bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad during the 1990s.

The Lahore High Court first sentenced him to death while an appeal in the apex court was later rejected and the death sentence was retained in 1991.

--IANS

hamza/pgh