Home at last after 35 years

Kashmir Singh a former Indian Policeman from Punjab and later a trader in Electronic Goods was arrested in the city of Rawalpindi in 1973. The Government of Pakistan convicted Mr. Singh of spying and was later sentenced him to death.

Now Mr. Kashmir Singh has been released by the Pakistani Authorities after 35 years. Yesterday Mr. Kashmir Singh crossed into India via the Wagah Border.

How did Mr Singh's release come about? Quoting BBC:

His release was spearheaded by Ansar Burney, a social worker and cabinet minister who tracks people lost in Pakistan's jail system.

Ansar Burney discovered Mr Singh on a recent trip to a jail in Lahore and persuaded Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to revoke his death sentence and order his release.

Mr Burney said last week that Mr Singh had been held in a condemned prisoner's cell for most of the time since his conviction and had become mentally ill.

He said that he was first informed about the case several years ago by members of the Indian community in London.

But he was unable to locate Mr Singh, despite visiting more than 20 jails across the country in connection with his campaign for prison reforms and prisoners' rights.

The minister said Mr Singh had not received a single visitor or seen the open sky and, like other condemned prisoners, was locked in an overcrowded cell for more than 23 hours a day, in conditions which the minister described as "hell on Earth".