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India opposes release of captured soldiers before media

Pakistan today announced it was ready to release two Indian soldiers caught in the disputed Kashmir region, but India opposed handing over the prisoners to the International Committee of Red Cross in the presence of the international news media.

Pakistani spokesman, Tariq Altaf, told a news conference that the two soldiers arrested last month were to be handed over to the ICRC, but India insisted the hand-over must be closed to the media.

''The Indians are opposing the presence of media for they don't want their aggressive attacks at the line of control (dividing kashmir between the two rivals) to be exposed to the world,'' he added.

Islamabad said the Indian soldiers were involved in an attack on a Pakistani position in the Shyok-Turkok sector near the line of control in Kashmir.

An Indian government spokesman yesterday accused Pakistan of intransigence on the release of the prisoners and demanded they be handed over to the Indian armed forces. He said the two soldiers had ''mistakenly strayed into the Pakistani sector of Kashmir along with four others''.

But Islamabad insisted on the handing over of prisoners through the ICRC and in the presence of media to avoid ''the repeat of indian allegations of mutilation of the bodies of its slain soldiers by Pakistan during Kargil crisis.''

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