New Delhi, June 27: Dalbir Kaur, who was the sister of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh jailed in Pakistan, passed away at the age of 67 on Saturday night. Sarabjit Singh was sentenced to death for spying by a Pakistan court in 1991 and passed away in 2013 in Lahore. Her last rites were conducted on Sunday at Bhikhiwind in Punjab.
Dalbir Kaur passed away in a private hospital in Amritsar after she complained of chest pain and shortness of breath. She had been suffering from a lung infection for the past year, said Poonam, Sarabjit Singh's daughter. When she was admitted to the hospital, doctors described her condition as severe, and she was transferred to the ICU, where she was put on a ventilator after a few minutes.
It should be noted that Sarbjit Singh was a farmer from Bhikhiwind town in Punjab, who used to live near the India-Pakistan border, who mistakenly crossed over the border after having a couple of drinks. However, he was sentenced to death by a Pakistan court in 1991.
Singh was kept in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for 22 years and after that, he was beaten up and killed by his inmates and was taken to hospital. Singh was declared dead by doctors at Lahore's Jinnah Hospital after being comatose for five days due to severe injuries in the head after an attack on him on the jail premises in 2013.
During his 22 years in jail, his older sister Dalbir Kaur had fought against the system to release her brother. Dalbir Kaur had always insisted that her brother, Singh was innocent and had strayed into Pakistan by mistake when he was arrested. She also went to Pakistan to see her brother.
The story of Dalbir Kaur and Sarabjit Singh was so heart-wrenching that it a biopic movie called ‘Sarabjit’, was released where Randeep Hooda and Aishwarya Rai played the parts of the siblings. Randeep Hooda was also seen at the last rites of Dalbir Kaur, which were conducted yesterday. Hooda has said that he will always stand by Kaur’s cause, and she was like a sister to him in real life.