INDIA: Hundreds of Indian and Pakistani prisoners emerged as beneficiaries of the 21-month-long peace process between the two nuclear rivals and returned home to freedom yesterday.
Joyous relatives greeted 435 Indians and 152 Pakistanis, mostly fishermen, farmers and others imprisoned for illegally straying over the border, as they walked free across the Wagah frontier post, the only land crossing between India and Pakistan.
On the Pakistani side, family members and friends celebrated the release with the beating of drums and dancing.
But the atmosphere on the Indian side was relatively muted. The crowd included relatives of 54 soldiers who claim they have been imprisoned since the 1971 war between the neighbours.
The relatives brandished photographs of their loved ones and held placards demanding their return. None of the soldiers, however, were expected to be among those who were freed, as Pakistan denies holding any Indian prisoners of war.
Wasim Sajjad, interior affairs minister for Pakistan's Punjab province, said the prisoner exchange would "bridge the gap" between India and Pakistan by creating a "more cordial atmosphere between the two nations".
The prisoner exchange is the outcome of peace talks between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars and an 11-week-long border skirmish since independence in 1947. They also came close to war in 2002.
It comes two days before India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York. The two leaders are expected to focus on the 58-year-old dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kashmir dispute is at the heart of bilateral "composite dialogue" and, according to Pakistan, its settlement predicated to the outcome of other issues that include nuclear confidence-building, terrorism, narcotics smuggling, river-water sharing, other territorial matters and people-to-people contacts.
India yesterday withdrew all paramilitary units in Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar, and replaced them with armed police. Officials said about 9,000 border security force personnel had been replaced with men from the central reserve police force, a federally administered organisation.
The government deployed the army and paramilitary across Kashmir after Muslim separatists launched their movement for an independent Islamic homeland and local police were unable to counter the terrorists' superior fire power and organisation.
Last week Mr Singh said the government would consider reducing army deployment in Kashmir, provided the insurgency abated.