India frees 28 Pak prisoners as goodwill gesture

As a goodwill gesture, India set free 28 Pakistani prisoners who were sent back to their country through the land route in Attari on Wednesday.

The repatriated Pakistani nationals had served varying jail terms in different prisons in the country, officials said.

Mukhtyar Ahmed, arrested on charges of espionage near the Indo-Pak border in 1989 and was languishing in Amritsar Central Jail, was among those released.

Mohammed Haji Iqbal, another Pak prisoner, was convicted of robbing a bank at Borivali in Maharashtra and transferring the money to masterminds of the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar.

He had served eight years in prison.

Of the repatriated prisoners, 11 were lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail, the officials said.