Sarabjit Singh: 22 Years in Lahore Jail, then Killed by Inmates

Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, one of the attackers involved in a series of bomb attacks in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990, was recently killed by unknown assailants in Lahore, as reported by the local media. Tamba’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, had tirelessly lobbied for his release from 1991 until his death in 2013. He was convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the bombings, as well as for terrorism and spying.

Tamba’s case was a source of contention between India and Pakistan, with India maintaining that he was a farmer who had accidentally strayed into Pakistan months after the bombings. Despite being sentenced to death in 1991, Pakistan postponed the sentence several times. Tamba was reportedly a close aide of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s founder Hafiz Sayeed.

Following a brutal attack on Tamba by a group of inmates, he sustained severe brain injuries, a broken backbone, and fell into a coma. His sister and wife were permitted to visit him in the hospital before returning to India when doctors declared his coma as irreversible. India’s appeal to release Tamba on humanitarian grounds or allow him to receive medical care in India was repeatedly denied by Pakistan.

After Tamba’s death, his body was brought to India, where a second autopsy revealed that vital organs, including the heart and kidney, had been removed. The initial autopsy report from Pakistan indicated massive internal bleeding due to a head injury. According to a member of the medical board that conducted the autopsy in Lahore, Tamba also had minor injuries on his face, neck, and arms.