New Delhi: Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, an accused in the murder of Indian death row prisoner in Pakistan Sarabjit Singh and a close associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit founder Hafiz Sayeed, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Lahore on Sunday, official sources said.
Tamba was attacked by motorcycle-borne assailants in the Islampura area of Lahore in Pakistan and was rushed in critical condition to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, the sources said.
Singh, 49, died of cardiac arrest in Jinnah Hospital Lahore in the wee hours of May 2, 2013, after being comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by inmates including Tamba, inside the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail.
Tamba, son of Sarfaraz Javed, was born in Lahore in 1979 and was a close associate of the LeT founder who felicitated him for killing Singh.
Notorious as ‘Lahore ka asli don’, Tamba was part of the ‘Truckenwalla gang’ and was engaged in the property trade and drug trafficking.
He was involved in a clash recently with one of the gang members Ameer Balaj Tipu who was later killed during a marriage reception in Lahore.
A group of Pakistani prisoners had attacked Singh with bricks and iron rods. Singh had been allegedly found guilty of taking part in several bombings in Pakistan’s Punjab province in 1990 and was given the death penalty.
Singh’s family maintained he was a victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border. His sister Dalbir Kaur had fought a long battle to secure his release from the neighbouring nation, but failed. She died in 2022 in Amritsar.
The reports quoting the family of Tamba said two men came on a motorcycle to their house and shot him in the upper storey.
Tamba’s body bore four bullet wounds, two each in the chest and legs, the reports said, adding while one of the gunmen was wearing a helmet, another had put up a mask on his face and both of them fled the scene after firing at him.
Tamba was enjoying all facilities including a mobile phone inside the jail during his imprisonment for his criminal activities, the sources said.
PTI