Wagah,(Pakistan): Six Pakistanis, including four teenage boys, returned home on Wednesday after being released from Indian jails where they were held between seven months to 15 years for illegal border crossing, an army official said.
As the prisoners crossed an iron gate at Wagah, the main border crossing between Pakistan and India, several Pakistani border guards quickly took them away for questioning. They were likely to be handed over to their families soon.
"Yes, we have received our six prisoners from India, but I cannot give you any other details," said Fayyaz Haider, an army major posted at Wagah, a border town near the eastern city of Lahore.
The freed were youths between the ages of 12 and 15 and two adults. The boys had been detained in India for between seven and nine months.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, and they often arrest each other's people on charges of illegal border crossing and alleged fishing in their territorial waters in the Arabian sea.
Such detainees have to wait for years to get back to their countries.
However, relations between the two neighbors have improved, and hundreds of prisoners have been freed since 2004 when the two countries began a peace process to resolve all disputes, including Kashmir.
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