Furthering the goodwill generated during Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Ali Gilani’s visit to witness the ICC World Cup semi-final at Mohali, India on Monday released and repatriated 39 Pakistanis who were held on various charges, including espionage.
The gesture comes within days of the return of Gopal Dass, an alleged “Indian spy” who spent 27 years in Pakistani jails. Dass was released following a pardon by President Asif Ali Zardari as a gesture in response to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to witness the Mohali match. Among the 39 Pakistanis sent home on Monday was Abdul Majeed. Lamenting the continuing bitterness between the two nations, the prisoner said this often resulted in the mistreatment of Pakistanis who have been incarcerated for mundane offences. “We are often discriminated inside jail,” he told reporters at the Attari-Wagah Border.
Majeed suggested India and Pakistan could have a panel of lawyers to take up cases of prisoners in each country so that innocents do not have to spend “one extra day in jail”. Prisoners in both the countries have been held in jails for years after completing their sentences. But there were others like Mohammad Yaseen of Faislabad (formerly Lyalpur) who celebrated the renewed India-Pakistan bonhomie by singing aloud songs of friendship while walking across the “Zero Line” at Wagah.