The Hindu : Pak. to free prisoners

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 14, 2003

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Pak. to free prisoners

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MAY 13. The process set in motion for normalisation of Indo-Pakistan relations by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, with his April 17 statement at a public rally is beginning to take off with the first small steps promised by both sides taking a concrete shape.

As India formally announced the appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon as the new envoy to Pakistan, Islamabad formally communicated to New Delhi its decision to release three separate categories of prisoners lodged in different parts of Pakistan.

In response to the initiatives announced by Mr. Vajpayee, the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, announced last Tuesday that Islamabad had decided to release all Indian prisoners.

These included 16 crew members of the cargo ship, "Raj Lakshmi" that sank off the Karachi coast, 22 Sikh youths who were pushed into Pakistan from Iran and 200 fishermen who had strayed into the Pakistani territorial waters while fishing.

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