India, Pakistan to free hundreds of prisoners

Pakistani Home Secretary Syed Kamal Shah (L) addresses a press conference as Indian Home Secretary V.K. Duggal (R) looks on after a meeting in New Delhi yesterday. India and Pakistan have agreed to release a number of prisoners held in each other's jails to strengthen their peace process, a joint statement said. PHOTO: AFP

"They have ... agreed to release on 12 September 2005 all fishermen and civilian prisoners who have completed their sentences and whose national status has been confirmed," said the statement.

An Indian home ministry official said this would affect "hundreds" of prisoners but did not give an exact number.

The statement was issued after two days of talks in New Delhi between the home secretaries (senior interior ministry officials) of the two countries.

India says there are 1,348 Indians in Pakistani prisons while Pakistan says more than 700 of its nationals are in Indian jails.

Many prisoners, despite having completed their sentences and having their nationalities confirmed, remain in prison due to "animosity and lack of mutual trust" between the two sides, the official said.

"We have made a fairly substantial move forward on various issues, which is an achievement," Indian Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said of the talks in which terrorism and drug trafficking were also tackled.

"The talks were held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere and the deliberations were frank and forthright," said the statement, read out at a press conference by Duggal.

Pakistan's Home Secretary Syed Kamal Shah also described the talks as "positive".

"The good thing is we went beyond the agenda of the talks ... and discussed the prisoners issue as well. This is something that will provide relief to the common people of both countries," Shah said.

"The effort is to move further each time we meet," he added.

Later the Pakistani delegation led by Shah went to the high-security Tihar jail in New Delhi to visit a group of Pakistani prisoners, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said.

The joint statement said India and Pakistan had "reiterated their commitment to combat terrorism and re-emphasised the need for effective steps for the complete elimination of this menace."

On narcotics, it said India and Pakistan were satisfied with "the continuing cooperation and exchange of information between the narcotics control agencies of both countries."

An agreement that aims at having "a regular institutional mechanism in place to intensify mutual cooperation and liaison on drug control matters" would be signed shortly, it added.

At the start of the talks on Monday, India handed to Pakistan a list of about 30 "fugitives from law" who had taken refuge in Pakistan including mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, PTI said.

Pakistan also gave India its own list of 37 "wanted" people -- mostly involved in drug trafficking offences, it said.

The meeting was part of a peace process launched in January last year by the nuclear-armed arch-rivals, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.