Indian freed after 27 years in Pakistan

“I met my children after 30 years in my country. This is happiness,” he said,
before admitting to reporters that he had been sent to Pakistan as a spy.

He is the latest beneficiary of a renewed push for peace between the two
countries.

Each side accuses the other of locking up hundreds of its citizens, tensions
which are periodically defused by prisoner exchanges.

India released an 80-year-old Pakistani doctor last month on humanitarian
grounds, after he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment
following an 18-year trial.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since the division of the
subcontinent in 1947, and came to the brink of another conflict as recently
as 2002.

Peace talks broke down in 2008 after terrorists stormed targets in Mumbai, an
attack blamed on Lashkar-e-Taiba, and which India believes was orchestrated
by Pakistani intelligence services.

However, relations have warmed during the past year, culminating in a trip by
President Asif Ali Zardari to India earlier this year.

SM Krishna, India’s foreign minister, on Thursday welcomed the release of Mr
Singh, but raised the case of another high-profile prisoner, Sarabjit Singh,
who has spent two decades in solitary confinement after being convicted for
his role in a string of bombings.

“I welcome this decision and further renew our request to the president of
Pakistan to release Sarabjit who has been in custody for well over two
decades and is serving a death sentence,” Mr Krishna said.

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