Sarabjit Singh is due to be hanged by Pakistan authorities on May 22 - he was originally set to be hanged on April 1, then on May 1, now his execution has been deferred again while supporters plead for his release.

Sarabjit claims he is a poor Indian farmer who wandered over the border into Pakistan by mistake. He was caught and charged with espionage and being involved in four bombings which killed 14 people in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990.

In 1991, he was convicted and sentenced to death and has spent the years since in jail while his plea for pardon has not been granted by the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Now he is waiting to find out if he will die.

I have a lot of sympathy with him because I have also spent years in a Pakistani prison after being wrongly accused of spying.

My name is Mehboob Ilahi. Like Sarabjit, I was also caught by the Pakistani police in Pakistan in 1977. after I strayed over the border by mistake. They also charged me with espionage and sentenced me to 14 years in prison.

I served my sentence and then they detained me for another five years. I was finally released in 1996 – after spending 19 years in various Pakistani prisons.

I met Sarabjit in 1994 in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan. He was around 30 years of age and a quiet and shy guy. He told me that, on that fateful night, he had had a quarrel with his wife, drank too much alcohol and wandered over to the border. His home is a village near the border.

But although Sarabjit’s case has been highlighted in the press, there are hundreds of Sarabjits in Pakistani jails and I am fighting to bring their plight to the world's attention.

If you are a prisoner in a Pakistani jail, you die every day. But if you are an Indian prisoner, then you die ten times everyday. They treat us like animals because they think we are the enemy.

In Pakistan, they do not consider Indian Muslims as Muslims. For them anyone who is not a Pakistani Muslim is an infidel. That is why, although I am a Muslim myself they used to taunt me that while Hindus burn their bodies after death, they would burn me while I am alive.

They torched me to extract a confession and I suffered burns over one-fourth of my body - the picture shows the scars from my torture. Doctors said that I would probably not live, but I fought on and recovered after three months.

In the prison they torture you so much that you are numb with fear and despair and at that point they can get any confession from you.

My life in the jails started around 4am. We woke up and were given two minutes to run to the toilet. Then from 4am till 2pm we had to keep standing – we couldn’t sit or walk around. At 12 pm we were given lunch and after lunch we continued to stand. After 2pm we were allowed to sit down but not lie down till 5pm.

We were kept in separate cells within a big prison, away from the Pakistani prisoners, and spent our time hanging around outside our cells within the confined area.

I was angry at my treatment and, once I was freed, I came back to India and set up a Foundation called Sangharsh to fight for Indian prisoners in Pakistan and abroad.

I am appalled at the ignorance in my country about the Indian prisoners who are suffering in Pakistani jails. They can spend crores of rupees to buy cricketers but they have no interest in what is happening to these hidden people.

How they are living, what is their state – no one knows and no one wants to know. I have appealed to the United Nations to send a delegation with me to Pakistan so I can show them how the Indian prisoners are living in their jails.

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Ansar Burney is a Pakistani Activist and Lawyer. He founded the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust – which fights for prisoner welfare world wide. Sweeble correspondent Nilanjana Bhattacharya spoke to him about the issue.

NB: How many Pakistani prisoners are there in Indian prisons and vice versa?

AB: There are around 700 Pakistanis languishing in Indian jails and 400 in Pakistani jails. There are so many prisoners on both sides, some have not been identified till now and, according to my information, some of these people have been behind bars for more than 30 years. Some of them are innocent because they do not know which side of the border is Pakistani or Indian. These are poor people and should be released immediately.

NB: As a human rights activist, you have visited prisoners in jails. What conditions did you find them in?

AB: Jail conditions are very bad, especially in these countries, as they are treating these human beings without dignity. They are treated as enemies and when you treat someone like an enemy, you cannot treat them right, can you? When I meet them on the border, I find some of them in trauma and others mentally unstable. These people are arrested as spies in both the countries, but they are not spies. If someone has a visa for Delhi and went to Lucknow, or someone had a visa for Karachi and went to Lahore, the police arrest them for espionage. This is not right. I feel that unless and until Indian and Pakistani people stop treating each other as enemies, the situation cannot be improved.

NB: Why is it that there are not many organisations that work towards the rights of these prisoners?

AB: It is true, but things are set to change. I visited India recently and was greeted very warmly. People wanted to know about my work and wanted to know how they can also help. I also had talks with various NGOs. I think the awareness is slowly spreading and very soon we will see a sea change in the situation.

NB: You were instrumental in the release of Kashmir Singh and now you are campaigning for Sarabjit Singh’s release. Being a Pakistani, one would expect you to fight for Pakistanis in Indian jails?

AB: I am a human being first and foremost and I have a great respect for human dignity. Whatever I am doing, I am doing it for a human being – whether he is Hindu or Muslim or Jew – is of no concern to me. For me man comes before religion and I am fighting for the basic right of humanity – freedom.