Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf ordered the release on Tuesday of 31 Indian Sikhs detained for illegal entry and also recommended that captive Indian fishermen be freed, a foreign ministry official said. Musharraf made the goodwill gesture during a meeting with senior members of two Indian communist parties, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jillani said. India's NDTV news channel reported that Musharraf had ordered the release of 200 Indian civilians held in Pakistani prisons, but Jillani said he did not know the exact number. Jillani said the president had ordered the release of 31 young Sikhs who had crossed into Pakistan from Iran. He said 266 Indian fishermen had been released last month, and that authorities were awaiting confirmation from the Indian High Commission that other detained fishermen were indeed Indian before freeing them. --More 2225 Local Time 1925 GMT
