Three civilians from Jammu and Kashmir also arrived along with them.

All of them were issued emergency travel certificates by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

Three prisoners were identified as Parvez Ahmed from Kashmir, Mangal Singh from Jammu and Shabudin from Poonch.

Parvez was arrested in 1992, while Mangal Singh was arrested in 1997 and Shabudin was arrested in 1991.

All the prisoners were immensely happy on being released by the Government of Pakistan.

On reaching the Indian soil, most of the prisoners thanked the Indian Government for its efforts to hold talk with the Pakistan Government to get them released.

Pakistan government freed them on Friday as a goodwill gesture close on the heels of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to that country.

The move came two days after India and Pakistan signed an agreement on granting consular access to each other's citizens being held in jails of the two countries.

Indian authorities had earlier confirmed the nationality of the fishermen and other prisoners.

The fishermen were arrested after they strayed into Pakistan's territorial waters.

Hundreds of fishermen from both countries are arrested every year by India's Coast Guard and Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency for accidentally drifting into each other's territorial waters.

Medical examination of all prisoners was conducted immediately after their arrival.

Parvez Ahmed, a resident of Kahsmir said, "I had crossed to Pakistan inadvertently and don't know how I reached in Pakistani territory until I was arrested".

"There were no fencing from where I crossed. On being arrested by the Pakistan force, I was thrown behind the bars where physical and mental torture was inflicted upon me."

Parvez said that he has also spent time in Kotlakhpat jail in Lahore where he had brief meeting with the Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who was on death row.

Fisherman Allah Rakha said, "I was in the Pakistani jails for the last 27 months along with my other fellow Indian prisoners. Most of the Indian fishermen were arrested nearly 24 to 27 months back when they reached Pakistan through territorial waters of Arabian Sea".

Hanif, another fisherman said, "It is very difficult to identify the territorial water while fishing in the sea".

Majority of the fishermen carried nightmarish experiences they got during their detention in the Pakistani prisons.

"I was arrested in the territorial waters of Arabian Sea. After arrest, I was confined in the unhygienic dingy cell at Karachi jail. Even the daylight was distant dream and hygienic food was too distant dream," Bhika, a fisherman, said.

Another prisoners said, "The behaviour pattern of the Paksitani jail officials was awful towards the us".

Indian fishermen claimed that the costs of the one boat varies from Rs three lakh to 10 lakh depending upon the quality and size of the boat.

At the time of arrest Pakistan Government had captured their boats.

The released prisoners claimed that still more than 700 Indian fishermen were languishing in the Pakistan prisons.

Source By DDNEWS