LAHORE, Nov 9: India on Tuesday handed over 25 prisoners to Pakistan at the Wagah border crossing. Reporters were not allowed to get close to the prisoners or their relatives, who had come to receive them.

"We have been refusing coverage at border for the past one month. If anybody wants to cover something here, it needs a prior permission from Pakistan Rangers headquarter," a rangers official said by phone.

However, a Punjab prisons official told Dawn that prisoners were handed over to Pakistan Rangers by the Indian Border Security Force, who were later handed over to an intelligence agency. "We will detain them ... they will be quizzed by an intelligence agency," he added.

He said six of the prisoners had been charged with overstaying in India, and the rest of them had served jail terms on charges of illegal border crossing. All of them had been in Indian jails in Rajasthan, Jammu, Delhi and Amritsar between three and five years, he added.

20 FISHERMEN HELD: Indian coast guards on Tuesday arrested 20 Pakistani fishermen after their three boats strayed into Indian waters in the Arabian Sea, police said, adds AFP.