Pakistan frees Indian fishermen

Pakistan has released 269 Indian fishermen imprisoned a year ago for fishing in Pakistani waters.

The men show their emergency documents issued by India

Pakistan says the releases are a gesture to encourage peace moves between the two nuclear powers.

India says it will reciprocate by releasing nearly 100 Pakistani fishermen.

Both countries routinely imprison the other's fishermen, a practice that the fishermen say is "inhuman".

Arrest warning

"It is a significant and unilateral attempt on the part of the Pakistani Government to bolster the peace process," maritime official Sibte Hasan said, the AFP news agency reports from Karachi.

But he warned the Indians against returning.

Fishermen say it is not their fault

"We would arrest you against should you again encroach Pakistani territorial waters."

Fishermen say they lack the sophisticated equipment needed to warn them when they are in danger of entering the waters of another country.

The BBC's Idrees Bakhtiar in Karachi says the decision to release the Indian fishermen was taken last month and it took about a month to repair their 31 boats.

Pakistan has also agreed to release another 74 fishermen as soon as their boats are repaired.

The fishermen were handed over to RK Sharma, first secretary of the Indian High Commission.

They then set off for the Indian state of Gujarat.

Mr Sharma told journalists that India would release 94 Pakistani fishermen from Indian jails. He did not give a date for their release.

A six-member delegation of India's fishermen's society went to Karachi to oversee the releases.

"Fishermen and their families from both sides are the worst sufferers and their arrests are quite inhuman," Velji Bhai Masani of the All Gujarat Fishermen Association said.

There has been a sharp improvement in relations between India and Pakistan since April, marked by the restoration of diplomatic relations.

But tension has increased in recent weeks following rising violence in Indian-administered Kashmir and fatal bomb blasts in India's commercial capital, Bombay (Mumbai).