There were tears of relief and smiles on the border today as India and Pakistan freed 584 civilian detainees, adding another goodwill gesture to the ongoing peace process.Among the first to step into India was Suraj Bhan from Ambala who kissed the ground before being welcomed by BSF Deputy Commandant Pradeep Katyal. Bhan’s story was that of many other Indian youths freed today. Sent to Greece by a travel agent in 1997, he began to work in Turkey. But soon, he ran out of luck and was boarded out, first to Iran and then to Pakistan where he was jailed.Amolak Singh’s two sisters fainted on seeing him again. Amolak was on his way to Greece when he was arrested in Turkey and pushed into Pakistan in December 2004 where he got a six-month term. ‘‘I won’t repeat the mistake,’’ said the youth who — and others like him — spent Rs 4 lakh on the wasted trip.Then there were fishermen like Vir Abbas and Channa Hama from Porbandar in Gujarat arrested for unwittingly entering Pak territory. ‘‘We were fishing when our boats strayed due to bad weather and ended up in Pakistan,’’ they said.Unlike the Indians, many of the Pakistanis were returning home after serving long terms. Prominent among them was Mohamad Babar who spent 14 years in jail in Jammu and Kashmir. Clad in white, he was all praise for the peace talks between the two nations that had helped his sister to get him freed. Babar, who was engaged when he strayed into India, is now looking forward to marrying his fiancee who has been waiting for him all these years.Bhago, an elderly woman had been shunted from one jail to other after she was found overstaying. ‘‘I had a one-month visa to visit my family in Uttar Pradesh, but I overstayed,’’ she sighed. Mohammed Ali and his family of four were returning after serving six-month terms in Kolkata for overstaying.Relatives on both sides had an anxious wait as the official ceremony dragged on with Pakistan Punjab’s Interior Minister Waseem Sazad, who was overseeing the official handover of prisoners, posing for pictures with Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Darbari Lal and BJP MP Navjot Sidhu. BSF officials and Pakistan Rangers had a tough time controlling both the media and relatives.While Pakistan released 435 prisoners, including 371 fishermen and 64 youth duped by travel agents, India freed 148 Pakistani nationals of whom 49 were fishermen and 99 others those who had strayed into India, or overstayed their visa.The Pakistani prisoners were brought to Amritsar prison on Sunday from various jails across the country. While 20 of them arrived from Rajasthan, 10 were from Gujarat, 31 from Punjab, six from Bengal, 31 from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Delhi and one each from Nagaland and Maharashtra.Among the two released from Delhi was one who was undergoing rehabilitation at the Lumpur Leprosy House. Four Pakistani prisoners freed today were deaf and dumb.The repatriation was the outcome of home secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan held in Delhi on August 29-30.‘Won’t swap Sarabjit with Pak prisoners’Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday ruled out swapping Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for allegedly spying, with Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, saying they were not ‘‘spies’’. ‘‘We do not have spies in India and all prisoners released today by both countries at the Wagah border were civilians and not security prisoners,’’ Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Naeem Khan said. Khan also played down media reports that Sarabjit’s family has been barred from visiting Pakistan. He said he has cross-checked reports and found that the family had not applied for visas. — PTI
