NEW DELHI, March 9: India accused Pakistan on Thursday of not acknowledging the presence of Indian prisoners of war in its jails, but said recent trends indicated that more and more prisoners of other categories were being freed by both sides.

The Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed, who made a statement in parliament to this effect, did not say if Pakistani POWs were also languishing in Indian jails.

“According our calculations 386 Indian fishermen 162 other Indian civilians are imprisoned in Pakistan but Pakistan acknowledges the presence only of 377 fishermen and 156 civilians,” Mr Ahamed said. He said according to the Indian count there should be 74 POWs in Pakistan, but Islamabad denies the existence of even one.