Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: India to release more than 100 Pakistani prisoners

India to release more than 100 Pakistani prisoners
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NewsByte on 09 April, 2008 09:20:00
 
New Delhi: Pakistan's human rights activist Ansar Burney on Tuesday said that
New Delhi is ready to release more than 100 Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian
jails. Briefing the media, after holding talks with Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon in the Capital, Burney said, "I want to convey the Indian
Government's decision to release large number of Pakistani prisoners. I am
grateful to Indian Government in general and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
particular. I will wait and see if Pakistan responds in a befitting manner."
The two countries frequently arrest each other's fishermen for intruding into
their waters despite a thaw in relations since they launched the peace process
in 2004. Many of those arrested have been in prison for years, often without a
trial. Last year, both countries agreed to release all arrested fishermen and
speed up the release of other civilian prisoners.
Burney who has been actively pursuing the case of Indian prisoner Sarabjit
Singh who is facing death sentence in Pakistan's prison, said, "We have not
discussed the issue Sarabjit in particular because Sarabjit is one case. We have
to deal with many cases and Sarabjit's is one of them.". "If settlement of this
(Sarabjit) case can bring both the nations together, then I think he should be
forgiven," he said.
Last month, Burney had urged the new Pakistani Government to consider
converting Sarabjit's death sentence into life imprisonment on humanitarian
grounds as he had spent more time than a life sentence on death row in Pakistani
jails.Burney had also played a significant role in the release of another Indian
Kashmir Singh, who had spent 35 years in Pakistani jails.
Sarabjit has been on death row since the Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected his
petition for mercy in March 2006. He has been accused of having played a major
role in serial blasts across Pakistan, which claimed at least 14 lives in 1991.
President Pervez Musharraf had earlier rejected his appeal for clemency.