M A I N   N E W S

Order to free Kashmir Singh issued
To cross over into India on Tuesday

Islamabad, March 2
Indian national Kashmir Singh, held on the death row in Pakistan prisons for 35 years after his conviction on espionage charges, will be released tomorrow and is expected to be reunited with his family the next day, caretaker human rights minister Ansar Burney said today.

Following the approval of Singh’s mercy petition by President Pervez Musharraf, the order for Singh’s release was issued by the interior ministry yesterday. Singh, currently in Lahore’s Central Jail, will be handed over to Syed Fahad Burney, acting chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust, on Monday.

The trust will take Singh to India by road through the Wagah border on Tuesday. Singh’s wife Paramjit Kaur, who has been struggling for his release since his arrest in 1973, will greet him on the Indian side of the border with family members and friends.

Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal spoke with Ansar Burney yesterday and assured the minister that Singh’s travel documents will be issued on Monday. Burney and the staff of his trust will accompany Singh on the journey to Wagah.

Fahad Burney said many of Singh’s friends and well wishers in India had started gathering at the border in anticipation of his return. “The release of Singh is being seen as a significant step of improvement in Pakistani-Indian relations and trust building,” said Ansar Burney.

The Ansar Burney Trust, one of Pakistan’s most prominent rights organisations, is also working for the release of other Indian nationals in Pakistani prisons, particularly fisherman.

Fahad Burney said the trust was searching for Indian prisoners of war in Pakistani jails. “We are also working for the release of Pakistani nationals from Indian jails,” he said.

Singh was traced by Ansar Burney during his visit to Lahore’s Central Jail as part of his work for prisoners’ rights and jail reforms. A mercy petition sent by the minister was accepted by Musharraf, who pardoned Singh and allowed him to return to India. Ansar Burney has thanked the President for his “humanitarian step”, saying it provided “great hope for many other wrongfully imprisoned or forgotten prisoners sentenced to death in Pakistani prisons”.

Due to this and other rights problems in Pakistan, Ansar Burney has moved a summary to the President for the creation of a National Commission for Human Rights in Pakistan. This would be “an organisation that would search for missing prisoners, work for prisoners’ rights and prison reforms”, he said.

The organisation would also work to tackle other human rights problems such as discrimination against minorities, human trafficking, slavery and women’s and children’s rights.

Pakistan’s human rights ministry recently began a project for building places of worship in jails for prisoners from minority communities. This move is expected to help Indian prisoners and prisoners belonging to minority communities in jails across Pakistan. — PTI