NEW DELHI - A round-the-world Indian cyclist freed from a Pakistan prison as a goodwill gesture ahead of a summit between the long-time foes is expected home soon. Authorities in Pakistan‘s North West Frontier province released Vikas Singh, 36, last Wednesday from a jail in Peshawar where he had been held since May for entering Pakistan without a visa. Singh‘s mother said at her home in the northern city of Lucknow she wanted to meet Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf when he travels to India next week to thank him for sending her son home.
Singh, an engineer, has been on a round-the-world bicycle tour to promote peace for more than a decade and entered Pakistan from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass border. His release came 10 days ahead of a summit between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Musharraf — the first meeting in over two years between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The release followed an unrelated Indian decision last Wednesday to free over 400 Pakistani prisoners in India as a goodwill move ahead of next week‘s summit in the Indian city of Agra. Singh‘s arrest received widespread coverage in the Indian media and the Indian Express newspaper said it received over 10,000 letters and e-mails in support of a campaign for his release.
The cyclist‘s father Surinder Singh, a retired government doctor, said the media campaign had saved his son. „I don‘t know what would have happened to him if the media had not been there to help,“ he said.
Reuters
