India may have “over-reacted” to the death of Sarabjit Singh, a suspected Indian spy, who died in a Pakistan hospital after being assaulted in a prison cell there, a former top spy said on Saturday.
Former special secretary Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Amber Sen was delivering a lecture on terrorism in India and beyond, at the International Centre in Panaji.
When asked during a subsequent open session to comment on the response of the Indian state following Sarabjit’s death, the former strategic intelligence advisor to the National Security Council (NSC) said, “The Indian state over-reacted.”
Sarabjit, who spent more than two decades incarcerated in Pakistan on charges of espionage succumbed to severe head injuries received in a murderous attack at the Kot lakhpat Jail, lahore, when two fellow inmates attacked him on April 26 with bricks and plates. He was admitted to a hospital in lahore and had been in coma until he breathed his last a couple of days ago.
His death has created an uproar in the country, with several sections of society and Sarabjit’s family too claiming that the Central Government had not done enough to bring him back.
Asked if the Central Government needed to come clear on whether Sarabjit was a spy or not, Sen, who has handled the Pakistan desk for RAW said, “If he was a spy no country would ever accept it.”