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Pakistan on Sunday released 20 Indian prisoners as a goodwill gesture and handed them over to the Indian authorities at a border check post, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
The release of Indian prisoners was one of the six confidence building measures declared early this month by Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarulla Jammali as a positive response to his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee's offer of dialogue.
The prisoners were provided passports and other related documents besides a box of sweets each by the Pakistani Rangers at the Wagah check post, about 30 kilometers east of Lahore, before their handing over to the Indian authorities.
Colonel G.S. Harris of the Pakistan Rangers who supervised the ceremony of the handing over told reporters that there are about 800 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. He added that the national status of 200 among them have been certified and Pakistanis ready to receive them at anytime.
R. K. Sharma, first secretary from the Indian high commission to Pakistan was present on the occasion to see off the prisoners.
Those released included 14 fishermen and six others. The fishermen were arrested in June 2001 at Gwadar, a south port city, four others were taken into custody for illegally crossing into Pakistan from Iran in January 2002, and the other two were nabbed in Quetta, capital of Balochistan Province, in May and July 2001 under a Pakistan's citizen act.
All the prisoners were tried by a court under the citizen act and they were set free in the past week after they completed their sentence, local English newspaper Dawn on Sunday quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes on Saturday welcomed Pakistan's decision to release the prisoners, saying "we welcome it and it is a big confidence building measure."
(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2003)
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