Pakistan’s former human rights minister Ansar Burney has offered to pay Rs 25 lakhs in “blood money” to save 17 Indians on death row in the United Arab Emirates from the gallows.
The 17 Indians — 16 from Punjab and one young man from neighbouring Haryana — were condemned to death before a firing squad after a Sharjah court pronounced them “guilty” in March 2010 for killing a Pakistani national in January 2009. Lawyers hired by India’s embassy in the UAE have appealed against the judgment.
But now Mr Burney, who is now in London, has said a Karachi-based trust run by his family would pay “blood money” to the family of the victim, Misri Nazir Khan, if the Indians’ appeal is rejected by the UAE court.
“I am looking forward to the appeal’s outcome. We will not let the Indians die,” Mr Burney promised.