ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court threw out on Wednesday an appeal by Indian spy Manjit Singh alias Sarabjit Singh seeking a review of his death sentence awarded by a court in 1991 on terrorism charges.

Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row, was sentenced to death for involvement in a series of bombings in different cities of Pakistan in 1990.

‘Apparently no ground has been made out in the case warranting a review,’ observed a three-judge bench comprising Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Mohammad Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery.

At the last hearing, the bench had adjourned the case to enable Rana Abdul Hameed, the counsel for the convict, to appear and plead the case, but he was not present when hearing began on Wednesday.

The execution of Sarabjit Singh, who has been in jail for 17 years, had been twice extended by the former president in the past. A ‘black warrant’, the last stage of all appeals, was also reportedly issued for his hanging.

The Indian government had approached former president Pervez Musharraf for mercy and subsequent release of the convict on humanitarian grounds. Pakistan turned down the Indian request during the concluding session of two-day talks between interior secretaries of the two countries.

Sarabjit, a resident of Bhikiwand, in Amritsar (India), was arrested by the Mujahid Force on Aug 30, 1990, near Kasur border, inside Pakistani territory, and handed over to the Intelligence Battalion in Lahore for interrogation.

He had told interrogators that he had been trained by the Indian Military Intelligence (IMI) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to carry out a series of bombings in Lahore, Kasur and Faisalabad.

Fourteen people were killed and 89 others injured in the blasts. He also confessed that he had been paid Rs36,000 by RAW for the task.

In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal with an observation that he deserved to die and did not warrant any leniency.

The court had also observed that although Sarabjit Singh was convicted by the trial court only on one count in cases of terrorism, he should have been convicted and sentenced separately for each murder in each case.