The families of the 17 Indians sentenced to death in Sharjah will approach Muslim religious leaders and organisations in India and Sikh organisations all across the world to intervene with the United Arab Emirates and save their lives.
Family members of 16 of the youth, who hail from Punjab and Haryana, got together Thursday in this Punjab town, around 150 km from Chandigarh, and met former union minister and Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia to seek his help in securing their release.
"Sentencing 17 people to death in the absence of concrete proof and evidence is totally intolerable. They were not a threat for their national security and we strongly condemn this verdict. We appeal Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to himself intervene in this issue to ensure justice," Ramoowalia told IANS.
"This is a very sensitive issue. Therefore, we have also appealed to all Sikh organisations and gurdwaras, across the world, to come out on a single platform on this issue. We will take these 16 families to Ajmer Sharif and we will meet Muslim organisations there and urge them to take up this issue with the UAE (United Arab Emirates)."
The LBP, which is working to help Indian youth stranded abroad for the last many years, is also sending its own delegation to Dubai.
"There is nobody to fight their case in Dubai and we cannot let our children languish like this in any part of the world. We will also send our own delegation to Dubai to appeal against this verdict," Ramoowalia said.
Seventeen Indians have been sentenced to death by a court in Sharjah for killing a Pakistani man and injuring three others in January 2009 following a fight over illegal liquor business, a media report said Monday.
The murder took place in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah in the UAE. The victim died of stab wounds and also suffered brain damage, police said.
The convicted men are between 17 and 30 years of age.
Paramjit Singh, brother of Taranjit Singh, who is among the 17, told IANS: "I was also in Dubai at the time when police had arrested these youth. They all are innocent and police have unknowingly committed a big blunder."
"Police had arrested them from a room, where the original culprits used to stay in the past. But after committing the crime, they fled to some unknown place. These Indian youth had taken the room just a few days back and during a raid, police arrested all of them without any proof," he alleged.
He said that the 17 are lodged in jail in the most inhuman conditions and police did not allow anybody to meet them.
"During my stay in Dubai, I tried for at least 20 times to meet them but I could meet them for only four times. All of them had turned very weak and had lost all hope," he recalled.
Taranjit's inconsolable mother Sukhwinder Kaur said: "I do not know what is going on and why they are targeting my son. For over last one year, I have not even heard his voice."
A majority of these families are from lower middle class backgrounds and engaged in agriculture.
"My son is innocent. He cannot kill anybody. Although we have lost all hopes but still I appeal to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to take up this issue with UAE," Gurmeet Kaur, mother of Ravinder who is also among the 17, told IANS.
Death for 17: Can appeal, says UAE
With concern mounting over the fate of 17 Indians awarded death penalty in UAE, the government there on Monday said the sentence was subject to appeal and its legal system ensured fair trial for convicts.
"Death penalty in UAE legal system is subject to appeal and cessation by the rule of law without any interference from the parties," the UAE embassy said in a statement. TNN