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Pak to free 89 Indian prisoners on Friday
Islamabad , Wed, 13 Apr 2011 ANI
Islamabad, Apr. 13 (ANI): The Pakistan Government has announced that it will release 89 Indian prisoners, including fishermen, as a goodwill gesture aimed at boosting ties between the two countries.
A Geo News report said the list of prisoners to be released includes inmates that India wanted freed.
It quoted a Foreign Office (FO) statement as saying on Tuesday that the freed Indian prisoners would be handed over to Indian authorities on April 15 (Friday).
On April 11, India had released 39 Pakistani prisoners, including two women, less than a week after an Indian who had been jailed in Pakistan for 27 years, was freed.
The 39 Pakistanis were escorted to the Wagah border checkpost on the outskirts of Amritsar and allowed to crossover into Lahore.
Before their release, the prisoners had been lodged in eight separate prisons on charges of either overstaying their visa or illegally crossing into India.
Monday"s release of prisoners is being viewed as another confidence-building measure between the governments of the two countries.
The prisoners said that they were happy to return to their homeland after completing their respective prison sentences. They said that the two governments must take steps to free the prisoners of each country who had completed their sentences. They also called for making the Indian subcontinent one again after over 60 years of partition. They said that such a step would promote peace, brotherhood, love and stability. (ANI)
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