PHOTO: AFP

BEYOND BORDERS: A Pakistani policeman carries an Indian prisoner released from jail, across the Wagah border on Saturday.

WAGAH: Seventy Indians who were released from Pakistani jails on Saturday crossed the border into India, with several of them saying their thoughts were with those who were not freed.

Among the released were 50 fishermen from a jail in Karachi. The rest, arrested mostly for crossing the land border — including a man who had been held for 25 years — were released from the Kot Lakhpat jail in the Punjab province.

Wearing rose garlands given by Pakistani officials, and clutching their meagre belongings, they crossed the gates at Wagah and were met by Indian officials on the other side.

The fishermen, from villages on the Gujarat coast, had been arrested in late 2005. Sanjay Bachchu from Junagadh said he was unaware that he had strayed into Pakistani waters until he was caught. Like many of the others, he spent 15 months in prison.

He said hundreds of other Indian fishermen in the Karachi jail were also expecting to be freed but felt let down when they heard that only 50 were to be released.

"They were disappointed and angry. They were saying had the Indian government released more Pakistani prisoners, Pakistan would have released more Indians," Sanjay Bachchu said.

Prior to the release, India said there were 412 fishermen and 52 other Indians "eligible for release" from Pakistani prison, that their nationality had been confirmed and they had completed their sentence.

Pakistan had established that 275 of its citizens were in Indian jails, 25 of them fishermen. India released 57 Pakistanis late on Friday. Indian officials here said the rest had not completed their sentences.

Sunil, from a village in Gurdaspur, said he was going home after spending "seven years, 10 months and 23 days" in various Pakistani jails including the Kot Lakhpat. He repeatedly requested that India and Pakistan make an effort to have the remaining prisoners on both sides released.

Sunil said he had been treated fairly well but the condition of many Indian prisoners in Kot Lakhpat was poor, quite a few having become mentally disoriented and even unable to remember where they came from.

Even among those released on Saturday, some had vacant looks and were incapable of coherent speech.

Two of the three women in the group seemed disoriented. The Daily Times reported that Pakistani prisoners released by India also seemed mentally unsound.

There was no particular joy on anyone's face. Everyone just looked blank. Manan Masih, who was going home after 25 years, said he heard that his granchildren got married while he was in prison. Another man showed his wife's letters and a four-year-old picture of his children.

One man suffered a paralytic attack just last week and had to be carried everywhere.

Mostly, they are all poor farmers who say they strayed into the Pakistani territory after a drink too many.

One said he was trying to round a stray buffalo when he was caught by Pakistani guards.

The odd one out was Sabiha Khan, an apparently well-educated woman, who said she grew up in Bhopal and worked in the U.S embassy in New Delhi.

She had been arrested for overstaying. But she was in illegal detention for almost a year before being transferred to Kot Lakhpat, when her case came to the notice of the Supreme Court's notice, which ordered her release at the earliest.

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