India will free around 150 Pakistani prisoners languishing presently in various Indian jails, said Ansar Burney here on Tuesday. Ansar Burney, who returned from a two-week long visit of India on Tuesday, said he has brought details with pictures of over 150 Pakistani prisoners being languished in Indian prisons, adding the India has agreed to release and repatriate them to Pakistan after confirmation of their Pakistani Nationality.
Some of the Pakistani prisoners had completed their sentences over a decade ago, but remained in Indian prisons, he said. Over two dozen, including women, had become mentally retarded. One prisoner, who Ansar Burney hopes will return to Pakistan soon, had spent nearly 20 years in Indian jails but was sentenced to 3 months by an Indian court.
During these meetings, Burney was provided with the list of over 150 Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian Prisons, along with many of their pictures, details of their offences and addresses in Pakistan; all of whom the Indian Government has agreed to release if the Ansar Burney Trust could confirm their Pakistani nationalities and Pakistani High Commission in India issued travel documents to them.
He said that Ansar Burney Trust will soon launch a countrywide campaign to contact the relatives of these 150 Pakistanis so that their release could be secured. Burney who was on a visit to India on the invitation of the Indian Government, spent significant time in Indian Punjab as a guest of the Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal.
He negotiated the release of 49 Pakistani prisoners who the Chief Minister has promised to release immediately, if their Pakistani nationality was confirmed and travel documents were issued to them. The other over 100 Pakistani prisoners are languishing in various other Indian States including Rajistan and New Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Ansar Burney Trust has requested family members and friends of all those Pakistani nationals who are lodged in Indian prisons to contact the organisation at: Ansar Burney Trust, Arambagh Road Karachi Pakistan. Phone: (021) 2623382/83, Fax: (021) 2623384. Email: contact@ansarburney.org
Burney thanked the Indian central and Punjab governments for their support and cooperation The list of these Pakistani prisoners and guarantees of their release were secured after high level meetings of Ansar Burney.
The former Pakistani Federal Minister for Human Rights and Member of the United Nations Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee Geneva, with officials of the Indian Government including Union Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Shiv Shankar Menon, Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Chairman National Human Rights Commission Chief Justice S Rajendra Babu, Chairman Punjab State Human Rights Commission former Chief Justice R S Mongia, Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal, several Members of Indian Parliament and others; along with many community leaders and opinion makers in India.