March, 23 2005	Wednesday	12 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, March 22: Pakistan on Tuesday sent home 564 Indian prisoners via Wagah border crossing as part of the latest initiative by President Musharraf to bolster the ongoing peace process between the two countries. Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who had requested the release of the prisoners during his meeting with Gen Musharraf in Islamabad last week, greeted the prisoners on the other side of the border.

As many as 23 Indian prisoners had accompanied Mr Singh on his return to Chandigarh on the conclusion of his three-day visit to Pakistan. “Such gestures are the only way to strengthen the peace process and abandon misunderstanding between the peoples of both the countries,” Mr Singh said while talking to reporters from across the border.

Wearing a green turban and clad in white kurta-pyjama, Mr Singh presented Brig Sakhi Marjan of the Pakistan Rangers a basket full of sweets. “I am sure that there is no other way around for a solution of conflicts between the two countries, but people-to-people contact,” he said. India, too, would be releasing Pakistani prisoners soon, he said.

“I have forwarded a list of 93 Pakistani prisoners, who are held in East Punjab jails, to Delhi. It is under process and I expect they will be set free in a week or so.” The Indian prisoners, brought to the border in four prison vans, were detained in a building of the Pakistan Rangers for around five hours for completion and verification of their travel documents before they walked into their homeland.

Earlier, the prisoners had been transported to Punjab from Sindh and Balochistan. The Indian High Commission’s second secretary, Balvindar Hampal, told Dawn this was for the first time that such a large number of prisoners were being returned by Pakistan. Of the total, he said, 528 were fishermen, and the rest were civilian prisoners. “What else can I term it except a positive step,” he replied when asked to comment. He said these steps would certainly help promote the peace process.

With smiles on their faces and eyes full of tears, some of the prisoners stepped on the soil of their homeland bare-footed.

“It was like a nightmare,” said Monis Shagan, 15, of Indian state of Junagarh, talking of his four-month imprisonment in a Karachi jail. A school drop-out, he said that he together with his father Shagan Parsad was caught in November, 2004. “I had accompanied my father to learn fishing. I never knew that I would end up in a jail.” He said this experience had brought bitterness to him, which would last for the rest of his life.

Why the two countries were at odds? asked another prisoner Arvind Blanj, 21, who was also caught on charges of illegal entry into Pakistani waters. He claimed it had always been very difficult to differentiate between Pakistani and Indian waters for ordinary fishermen like him. There must be some clear demarcation of the waters of the two countries, he demanded. However, he said that his release had brought him back to the world. “I had made my mind that I would rot myself in jails for the rest of my life.”

Yet another prisoner, Lakham Shakar, 60, too weak to walk, believed he might have committed a sin in his life, for which he was imprisoned. He requested the two governments to take up at earliest the release matter of another 200 Indian prisoners detained in a Karachi jail. “They wept and asked me to kiss our land on reaching there,” he said while talking of his last meeting with his imprisoned countrymen.

Earlier, Punjab Law Minister Raja Muhammad Bisharat said while seeing off the prisoners: “Pakistan also expects a positive response from India.”

A Pakistan interior ministry official, Ghulam Muhammad, also present on the occasion, said there were 397 Pakistani fishermen and 190 other civilian prisoners in Indian jails. “We have approached the Indian authorities and they have conveyed us that 56 of the Pakistani prisoners would be set free in some days. “No date, however, has been given by them so far,” he said.