QUETTA, May 17: The Balochistan government has released 20 Indian nationals, including 14 fishermen, from the Central Jail Mach and Quetta who were arrested from Gwadar and other areas of the province.

“Yes, all the twenty Indian nationals have been sent to Lahore for being handed over to the Indian authorities on Sunday,” a senior official of the government told Dawn on Saturday.

He said that eighteen Indian nationals, including 14 fishermen, were released from the Central Jail Mach on Friday, who took train from Sibi for Lahore, while the two other Indians, who were kept in the Quetta district jail, were allowed to leave jail on last Thursday.

“All the Indians arrested in Pakistan were tried by a court under the citizen act, which awarded them jail term,” the sources said, adding they were set free after they completed their sentence.

An Indian diplomat posted in Islamabad travelled to Quetta last month and met the prisoners to identify them as Indians.

The sources said that 14 Indian fishermen had been arrested from Gwadar in June 2001 while four others were taken into custody at Taftan. They had illegally crossed into Pakistan from Iran in January 2002. Two other Indian nationals were nabbed in Quetta in May and July 2001 under the citizen act.

These Indians have reached Lahore and are to be handed over to the Indian authorities at Pakistan-India border.