No Pak response on access to Indian ‘agent’

Singh was convicted by the Punjab province anti-terrorism court, and his death sentence was upheld last week by the Supreme Court.

A request for consular access was made for over 100 Indians convicted for various offences in Pakistan, but that has not granted so far, the Indian officials said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Naeem Khan told reporters here that he was not aware of Islamabad receiving any mercy appeal directed to President Pervez Musharraf from Singh’s family in India. Affirming it to be a case of mistaken identity, Singh’s family decided to submit a mercy petition to Musharraf.

To questions on Indian and Pakistani prisoners in each others’ countries, Khan claimed that Pakistan has confirmed the national status of 177 of its prisoners, but India has not released them.

‘‘Pakistan has repeatedly asked India to grant it access to its nationals languishing in many Indian jails, including some who have been there for around 18 years,’’ Khan said. He added that India has yet to grant consular access to 222 Pakistani prisoners.

India’s deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, TCA Raghavan, told reporters that New Delhi has asked Islamabad to release 432 of its prisoners, whose nationalities have been confirmed. Khan said the Indian request had been received and was being looked into.

Khan also informed reporters of the release in Iraq of two Indians and 11 Pakistanis, abducted by unidentified persons earlier this month.

‘‘I can confirm that the Indians too were released alongwith 11 Pakistanis and three Egyptians in Iraq,’’ he said.

The 16 men were working for the Kuwaiti companny MSN Hamrai, and were abducted on their way to Iraq by bus on August 13.

Advising Pakistanis against seeking work in Iraq in the very ‘‘fluid’’ situation there, Khan said there had been a number of kidnapping incidents in Iraq, including one in which two Pakistani workers were executed. —PTI