Pakistani prisoners return from India

A group of 39 Pakistani prisoners held in India returned home yesterday, the second high-profile prisoner release in days that underscores an easing of tensions between the two rivals. "We have received 39 Pakistani prisoners from India," a spokesman for Pakistan's paramilitary Rangers, Mehboob Hussain, told AFP. "We are checking their documents and will send them to their respective places," he added, describing the releases as a "goodwill gesture". Indian authorities earlier escorted the Pakistanis, who include two women, to a border transit post in the northern city of Amritsar from where they left for home. Indian border guard officer Lakhbir Singh said the detainees were held in eight separate prisons on charges of either overstaying their visa or illegally crossing into India. Pakistan last week released a jailed Indian who had been held for 23 years. The move was seen as another confidence-building measure as India and Pakistan look to get their stalled peace process back on track. Peace talks between the two rivals, started in 2004, were derailed after Islamist gunmen-who India insists came from Pakistan-staged bloody attacks in Mumbai which left 166 people dead in 2008. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani became the most senior Pakistani leader to visit India since 2001 when he watched the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semi-final late last month with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. Pakistan and India, who have fought three wars since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, have agreed to a series of high-level talks until July to shore up the fragile detente.