Chandigarh:
The Punjab government has said it will not execute Balwant Singh Rajoana on Saturday. Mr Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special CBI court in Chandigarh for his role in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister, Beant Singh, who was from the Congress. Mr Singh had been killed in 1995. Here are 10 big developments in this story:
1) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said in the Assembly that Mr Rajoana cannot be executed on Saturday. His announcement comes on a day when the Shiromani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Comimttee or SGPC, which functions as a parliament of Sikhs, has sent a mercy petition to President Pratibha Patil. It allegedly cites 11 other similar cases where the death sentence was commuted.
2) The Sikh clergy has said the state government must fight to save Mr Rajoana. The Akal Takht, which is the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, has conferred the title of zinda shaheed or living martyr conferred on him by Sikh high priests. Mr Rajoana has said he does not want this title.
3) A court in Chandigarh has asked authorities at the Patila Jail, 80 kms away, to execute Mr Rajoana on Saturday.
4) Mr Rajoana, who has been convicted for being a Babbar Khalsa terrorist, has refused to defend himself in any court saying he wants to die for "the cause of Khalistan" (a separate Sikh homeland).
5) Mr Rajoana was awarded the death sentence for the assassination of Beant Singh in 2007 by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court. Another terrorist, Jagtar Singh Hawara, was also given the death sentence. Mr Hawara has been described as the mastermind of the murder.
6) Beant Singh who was the chief minister of Punjab from 1992 to 1995 was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab. He was assassinated by a human bomb, Dilawar Singh, at the high security Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh in August 1995. Mr Rajoana was to serve as a back-up human bomb.
7) The assassinated chief minister's family has also stated that it has forgiven Mr Rajoana and would like his death sentence be converted to life imprisonment.
8) The Punjab government has already sought para-military forces from the Centre as a precautionary measure, officials said.
9) Yesterday, the BJP, sharing power with SAD in the state, steered clear of the controversy saying the matter was sub judice. "It is for the courts to decide and nobody has a right to interfere," Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma had said.
10) On Saturday, the Patiala Jail said the execution is not possible. "After looking into the all legal aspects of the case minutely, the Jail Superintendent of the Central Jail Patiala is of the view that since this case has many legal and constitutional shortcomings, loopholes and flaws, the execution of the court order is impossible within the ambit of law," Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal told the Punjab Assembly today.