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Attari, India (AFP) April 7, 2011 An Indian national held in Pakistan for 23 years returned home Thursday in a sign of easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals who resumed peace talks last month. Gopal Das, one of Pakistan's longest-serving Indian prisoners, crossed the border and was received by relatives in Attari, a land transit route in the northern Indian state of Punjab. President Asif Ali Zardari ordered the release late last month after an appeal from India's Supreme Court. Das -- who told reporters he was 26 when he was arrested -- was sentenced to life in prison in June 1987 and had been due for release by the end of this year. Pakistan's presidency did not say why he was convicted, but Das himself confirmed reports that he had been jailed for spying. "Yes ... I went to Pakistan on a spying mission and I was arrested for espionage," said Das, who was clearly angered by what he saw as his abandonment by the Indian authorities. "Indian intelligence never bothered to get me released from jail in Pakistan," he said. "I carry a grudge against the Indian leadership because it does not bother about Indian prisoners still rotting in Pakistan prisons for many years," he added. He made a point of thanking the president and prime minister of Pakistan for his early release. Das's release comes as India and Pakistan are making concerted efforts to put their troubled relationship back on track, after India broke off peace talks in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Last week, 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 with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. British Premier David Cameron during a trip to Islamabad this week urged the two countries to move closer, describing the sight of Gilani and Singh sitting together to watch the match as a "tremendous sign of hope for the future". Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, and came to the brink of another conflict as recently as 2002. burs-str-pc/gh/jah
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