India frees 14 Pakistani prisoners (Lead)

June 28th, 2011 - 10:36 pm ICT by IANS  

Amritsar, June 28 (IANS) Fourteen Pakistanis walked home to freedom from the Attari border checkpost near here Tuesday, after being released from prisons in four states.

They included 10 Pakistani fishermen who had strayed into Indian waters off the coast of Gujarat, said officials at the border checkpost, about 30 km from here.

Ten of them were brought here from Gujarat, two from Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Punjab and Maharashtra.

All the Pakistanis were given emergency travel certificates by the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi.

The Pakistanis said they were happy to return home after being jailed in India for the last few months.

“We are very happy to be going back. We want that both the countries should let off innocent people who cross into the territory of the other country. The process should be made faster for release,” Noor Mohammed, who hails from a village near Karachi and spent seven months in an Indian prison, told reporters here.

Border Security Force (BSF) officials escorted the Pakistanis up to the border gates with Pakistan where they were handed over to officials of that country’s border guards Pakistan Rangers.

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