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15 April 2005
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Friday
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05 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426
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India frees 24 Pakistani prisoners
By Asif Shahzad
LAHORE, April 14: India on Thursday released 24 Pakistani prisoners and handed them over to Pakistan at Wagah border. The release is apparently in response to a similar gesture made recently by President Pervez Musharraf to bolster the ongoing peace process between the two countries.
On March 22 Pakistan had freed 564 Indian prisoners three days after Indian Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh who had secured their release in a meeting with Gen Musharraf in Islamabad. Captain Singh had accompanied 23 of the prisoners on his return to Chandigarh on the conclusion of his three-day visit to Pakistan.
Those returned by India on Thursday included two people arrested on smuggling charges. The others had strayed across the border. They all belong to Punjab.
Provincial minister for prisons Saeed Akbar Niwani greeted the prisoners at the border and said that the swap of prisoners between the two countries is part of a policy initiated by President Musharraf to promote peace in the region.
He said the prisoners had been in Indian jails for between two and 15 years.
“The only sin I had committed was to enter by mistake the Indian territory at Kasur border,” said Shabbir Ahmad, 55, a resident of Hujra Shah Muqeem. He spent 15 years in Indian prisons. “At one stage I thought that I would to spend my whole life in prison. This release is like a second life,” he said.
Mohammad Ali, 38, said he had been caught by the Indian authorities when he was just roaming through the fields in a village on the Pakistan-India border. “I cannot explain what this release means to me. I am thankful to both Pakistani and Indian governments for giving me a chance to live a life for myself, my family and my country,” Mr Ali said.
The prisoners were taken by the authorities to a jail for questioning by various agencies.
According to Pakistan interior ministry, there are still 397 Pakistani fishermen and 1166 other civilians in Indian jails.
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