By APP
New Delhi : Ansar Burney, former caretaker Minister for Human Rights has said that India has handed over a list of 150 Pakistani prisoners to him for releasing them at the earliest.
Speaking at Meet the Press programme of Press Club of India here, the human rights activist said during his interaction with Indian authorities including Indian Home Minister Shivraj V. Patil and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, he discussed the issue of prisoners languishing in the jails of both the countries.
“It is a humanitarian issue and it should be seen in that perspective only,”he said adding the relatives of prisoners on both sides of the border are passing through great agony and pain.
Ansar Burney said he would use different channels in Pakistan including the media to locate relatives of prisoners mentioned in the list. After establishing credentials of the prisoners, he would approach Foreign Office and High Commission in India for issuing of traveling documents for their deportation to Pakistan.
“I have started this mission to serve the humanity and I will continue with it despite hurdles,” he said while referring to the difficulties he faced in Pakistan on the release of Kashmir Singh when body of a Pakistani prisoner Khalid Mehmood was handed over to Pakistan by India at the same time.
When asked on the issue of release of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in Pakistan due to involvement in bomb blasts, he said his relatives could not provide sufficient evidence to support their claim that it is a case of mistaken identity. However, he said since the prisoner has already spent eighteen years in Jail, he will try to get his death sentence converted into life imprisonment.
He categorically said that he had no sympathies for those involved in terrorism and killed innocent people.
Responding to a question, Ansar Burney said he could not find any Indian Prisoner of 1965 or 1971 wars in any Pakistani jail.
He said the poor fishermen in both the countries suffered the most when they strayed into each others territory. They faced heavy financial loss when their boats are confiscated. Both the countries should evolve a policy about the poor fishermen as “wall cannot be built†in the ocean to stop them entering into each other’s territory.
Meanwhile, Pakistan did not receive any response from Indian side over a list of more than five hundred Pakistani prisoners handed over to New Delhi for seeking details about their status in Indian jails. The investigation report about the death of Pakistani prisoner Khalid Mehmood is also awaited, the sources said.