LAHORE, May 18: Pakistan on Sunday handed over 20 Indian prisoners to their country at Wagah.

The prisoners had been driven to Lahore in two batches on Friday and Saturday evening after being handed over to the Punjab by the Balochistan government. Two of them had been kept in the Quetta Central Jail and the rest in Bolan’s Mach Jail.

Col Sher Zaman and Col Haris of Pakistan Rangers while talking to Dawn described the move as a positive gesture of Pakistan. Mr Haris said he did not know exactly how many Indian prisoners there were in Pakistani jails. “India has around 800 Pakistanis in its prisons. Of them, 200 are reported to have been cleared of all charges, and the other 600 are on their way to being cleared,” he replied when asked a question regarding the Indian claim that it had no Pakistani in its jails. “We wish a similar response from the other side.”

The prisoners told reporters that they had been in Pakistani custody for over two years although they were handed down imprisonment of two months only when produced in a court after their arrest. Fourteen of them had been arrested in Gwadar, four in Taftan and two in Quetta on charges of crossing into Pakistan illegally.

“There is nothing that I have prayed for in the last two years except that I be joined with my family,” one of the prisoners, Karam Singh (32), said. He belonged to the Indian Punjab and planned to start farming on returning to his homeland. He appreciated the Pakistani gesture of deciding to set free prisoners and hoped that India would do the same. “I can understand what kind of ordeal prisoners like us have to face.”

The prisoners were driven to the border in a jail van early in the morning. At Wagah, they stayed in the van for around an hour before the process of their documentation was initiated.

Carrying luggage on their heads, they went to a room where the Pakistani authorities took another hour scrutinizing them before presenting them to newsmen.

Heera Lal (50) of Indian Gujarat said he could not explain how glad he was to learn that he was going home. “I had never thought that there was any chance of me getting out of jail. I had accepted it for fact that I would rot in prison for the rest of my life.”

However, he said that the peace process between the two countries had given him a chance to live and see the world again. He said he had nothing to complain about and wanted to start a new life.

Heera Lal said he would like to see the two countries get close to each other and have friendly ties for the sake of prosperity. “India and Pakistan should immediately start cooperating with each other if they are interested in the betterment of their people.”

The prisoners were later lined up close to the border and given emergency passports. “The Indian Embassy issued them emergency passports so that they could be recognised as Indian nationals because they did not have any document with them,” Capt Abdur Rauf of Pakistan Rangers said. Besides the Pakistani authorities, First Secretary to Indian High Commission R. K. Sharma supervised the process.

The Pakistani and Indian authorities then shook hands standing on their respective sides of the border and exchanged smiles and laughter before formally allowing the prisoners to cross over to India one by one.

Each of the prisoners was given a gift-pack wrapped in green paper, which the Rangers said, contained sweets. Every prisoner entering India was greeted by officials of the Indian Border Security Force.