Islamabad - Procedural hitches delayed the repatriation of an Indian man released from a prison in Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday, media reports said. Pakistani authorities freed Ram Prakash, who was convicted for espionage in 1998, from Kot Lakhpat jail in the provincial capital Lahore after he served 10 years in prison.
Prakash was driven to the Wagah border crossing with India, but he could not be sent home as some of his "travel documents were missing," Urdu-language Geo News channel reported.
The Indian prisoner was taken back to the jail after a wait of a few hours.
According to Geo, prison officials said documents in Prakash's case were given to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for processing, but the mission did not turn up with them at Wagah on Tuesday.
The channel quoted the detainee as claiming that he was captured by Pakistan's paramilitary forces in Sialkot area in 1997 for smuggling liquor.
Pakistan and India have jailed scores of each other's nationals on charges of spying, besides keeping hundreds of fishermen in different jails for violating maritime boundaries.
One of the Indian men convicted by Pakistan of espionage and terrorism, Sarabjit Singh, awaits execution after rejection of his clemency appeals.
The nuclear-armed archrivals routinely release detainees in batches to further their so-called composite dialogue aiming at normalizing bilateral relations.
The South Asian neighbours have fought three wars and nearly started a fourth one in 2002 since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
