Pak frees 89 Indian prisoners

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Apr 14 (PTI) Pakistan on Thursday freed 89
Indian prisoners, including fishermen, from a jail in the port
city of Karachi as part of a process initiated by the two
countries to speed up the release of people held in each
other's prisons for inadvertently crossing land and maritime
boundaries.
After being released from Malir Jail, the Indian
prisoners boarded buses that would take them to Lahore to be
handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah land border
crossing on Friday.
The Indian prisoners were arrested between September 2009
and January last year, TV news channels reported.
Their release was a follow-up to a meeting of the
Interior and Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan in New
Delhi last month.
Nasir Aslam Zahid, Chairman of the NGO Prisoners Welfare
and Legal Aid Committee, told reporters that Pakistani
authorities had granted consular access to another 33 Indian
prisoners being held in Malir Jail.
They too will be released in the near future after the
completion of certain formalities, he said.
"It is our endeavour to remove hurdles and delays in the
release of detained fishermen on both sides of the border,"
Zahid said.
On April 11, India released 39 Pakistani prisoners.
Both countries exchanged lists of prisoners during the
meeting of the Interior and Home Secretaries last month.
The two countries are scheduled to exchange complete
lists of prisoners on July 1 under an agreement on consular
access signed in May 2008.
The process of releasing prisoners, which suffered a
setback in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008,
has picked up pace after the two countries recently agreed to
resume their stalled peace process.