Pak frees 17 Indian prisoners

Ahead of Foreign Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan,17 Indian prisoners walked home to freedom across the Attari checkpost...

Ahead of Foreign Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan,17 Indian prisoners walked home to freedom across the Attari checkpost after their release from Pakistans Kot Lakhpat Rai jail in Lahore.

Though the release is being viewed as a goodwill gesture ahead of the talks,the prisoners said the talks are mere formalities.

These are all formalities and would bring little or no respite for the many prisoners in the jails in Pakistan,said Bhinja,40,a resident of Barmer in Rajasthan.

Bhinja along with many others said that they were tortured,fed badly and ill-treated by the staff and fellow Pakistani prisoners. He said any Indian arrested in Pakistan was treated as a spy and subjected to torture before numerous cases are slapped against him.

He served 12 years in jail after he was arrested when he inadvertently entered Pakistan and was forced to sign papers declaring himself an Indian spy.

Raj Singh,a resident of the border town Ajnala in Amritsar,said that he was tilling his land across the barbed fence on Indo-Pak border when he was suddenly overpowered by Pakistan Rangers in 2008 and taken to the police cells for interrogation. He also said that he met over 30 Indian prisoners in Kot Lakhpat Rai jail who had no one to listen to their plight.

Most of the prisoners were from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan who were arrested in Pakistan for overstaying their visa or inadvertently crossingthe border.

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Of the six prisoners from Rajasthan,five hail from Barmer and one from Jaisalmer. Barmer MP,Harish Chowdhary,has been campaigning for their release for a year now.

Rajasthan Peoples Union for Civil Liberties general secretary,Kavita Srivastava said,Though this is a victory of sorts,there are still several prisoners on either side who have overstayed their sentences and this is a step in the right direction.