LAHORE, Pakistan – Authorities in Pakistan are currently investigating the shooting death of a man who was previously acquitted in the killing of Sarabjit Singh, an accused Indian spy who died in a Lahore prison in 2013, as confirmed by a police official on Sunday.
Pakistan has accused India’s intelligence agency of involvement in killings within its borders, citing credible evidence linking Indian agents to the deaths of two Pakistanis in the previous year.
The man who was shot in Lahore on Sunday was identified as Amir Tamba, a suspect in the death of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national convicted of espionage in Pakistan and condemned to death in 1991. However, Singh passed away in 2013 after being assaulted by inmates in the Lahore prison, further straining the already tense relations between the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries.
Tamba, along with another individual, faced trial for Singh’s death but was ultimately acquitted in 2018 due to insufficient evidence presented.
According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Ali Nasir Rizvi, armed gunmen entered Tamba’s residence and fatally shot him before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle. Pakistani army and intelligence officials promptly responded to the incident, transporting Tamba’s body to the city’s Combined Military Hospital.
Rizvi mentioned that a case has been registered against the unidentified assailants, while withholding additional details on the motive behind the attack.
While media coverage of Tamba’s killing in Pakistan was limited, Indian news outlets swiftly reported the incident. As of now, there has been no official statement from Indian authorities regarding the shooting.
Sarabjit Singh, arrested in 1990 for alleged involvement in bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad that resulted in the deaths of 14 individuals, was believed by his family to be innocent.
In a separate development last year, both the United States and Canada accused Indian agents of being linked to assassination plots in their respective countries. India refuted the allegations of involvement in the Canadian incident as “absurd.”
In response to the U.S. accusations, India’s foreign ministry established a high-level committee to investigate the claims, acknowledging the serious nature of the alleged connection to an Indian official.
This article has been updated to reflect that Tamba’s killing occurred on Sunday, not Saturday as initially reported.