M A I N   N E W S

Pak to release 300 Indian prisoners

Islamabad, May 13
As a part of its confidence building measures, Pakistan has decided to release nearly 300 Indian prisoners, held in various jails in the country, official sources here said today.

The Indian Government had been informed about Islamabad’s decision to release 22 Sikhs and 14 crew members of Indian cargo vessel ‘Raj Lakshmi’, along with around 250 detained Indian fishermen, the sources said.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on May 6 had said that Islamabad would release Indian prisoners as a part of confidence building measures which included the reopening of rail, road and air links and the restoration of diplomatic contacts.

The prisoners would be released after working out logistic arrangements with Indian officials, the sources said adding that most of them had already been visited by Indian officials in recent weeks after Pakistan provided counsellor access to them.

Meanwhile, in a significant turnaround, Pakistan has said it is ready to resume trade relation with India on bilateral level as well as under the SAARC umbrella as soon as dialogue between the two countries begins.

"The programme in this connection has not yet been finalised, however, as soon as dialogue between the two countries starts, we are ready to do trade with India," Pakistan’s Commerce and Trade Minister Humayun Akhtar told BBC Radio in an interview yesterday.

Until a few weeks ago Islamabad had linked the resumption of trade to progress of talks on the Kashmir issue. PTI