Islamabad, May 7: Sarabjit Singh was used by the Research and Analysis Wing to avenge Islamabad’s alleged support to the Khalistan movement, a Pakistani newspaper claimed today quoting a former intelligence official of that country.

“That was the time when Kashmiri insurgency in the Indian-administered Kashmir was still a year or two away and the Khalistan movement in the Indian part of Punjab was at its peak, when RAW recruited Sarabjit to get even with us,” English-language daily Dawn quoted the former official, whose testimony led to Sarabjit’s conviction, as saying in Lahore.

“For Sarabjit, the motivation was money. For RAW, it was a tit for tat for what they thought we were doing to them in (Indian) Punjab.”

Kashmir militancy, however, had begun a year or two before Sarabjit was arrested in Pakistan in connection with bombings in that country in 1990. Sarabjit’s family says he never worked for RAW and had strayed across the border in August 1990 in a drunken haze.

The former Pakistani official, according to Dawn, claimed that RAW had recruited and trained Sarabjit and sent him on dry runs to Pakistan before tasking him to detonate bombs in Lahore and Faisalabad.

“The RAW’s signature was very visible. The explosives were packed in ghee tins and smuggled to Pakistan,” he was quoted as saying.

“At the time, India had not fenced the border along Kasur district (in Pakistan’s Punjab province) and the area was used by smugglers on both sides of the border.”

Well conversant with the basic tenets of Islam, Sarabjit could have passed for any Punjabi from Lahore or Rawalpindi, the former official said.

“He was paid for each mission, which was adequate by Indian standards but not handsome and varied with the number of people killed in each explosion. He was not driven by any sense of patriotism.”

Sarabjit, sentenced to hang as a spy, spent more than 22 years in Pakistani jails before being attacked and critically injured by two other inmates in a high-security Lahore prison last month. He died at a Lahore hospital on May 2 and was cremated with full state honours in his village of Bhikhiwind in India’s Punjab.

Travel advisory

Pakistan today advised its citizens travelling to India to exercise “due caution” citing purported Indian media reports that their security “may be in jeopardy”, PTI reported from Islamabad.

“The government of Pakistan wishes to advise its citizens who are planning to travel to India to exercise due caution and care while travelling to various parts of India,” a Pakistan foreign office statement said.

It cited “some disturbing reports in the Indian media which indicate that the safety and security of Pakistani visitors to India, including that of over 600 zaireen (pilgrims) scheduled to visit Ajmer Sharif for the annual Urs this month, may be in jeopardy”.

The statement did not give details about these media reports. It said: “The government of Pakistan would also call upon the government of India to ensure that necessary arrangements are in place to provide full protection to all Pakistani visitors to India.”

The advisory comes days after Pakistani national Sanaullah Ranjay, sentenced to a life term in India on terror charges, was severely assaulted in a Jammu jail by a fellow inmate, apparently in retaliation for Sarabjit’s death. The two jail attacks have triggered fresh tensions between the two countries.

Earlier this year, bilateral relations were hit by a string of LoC ceasefire violations.