We don't spy on neighbours, asserts India

New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) India Friday said it does not indulge in spying on its neighbours, including Pakistan, and dismissed the claim of Surjeet Singh, the Indian who was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of spying about three decades ago and freed earlier this week.

Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh told a press conference here that the Indian government does not accept that Surjeet Singh was a spy for India inside Pakistan.

"We do not do such spying...We do not accept that he (Surjeet) is a spy," Singh responded to queries on the Indian prisoner's "confession" soon after he crossed into India at Attari-Wagah border checkpost in Punjab Thursday.

The home secretary said he had read reports that Surjeet was mistreated in Pakistan prison.

On being told that Surjeet had claimed the contrary and said that all Indian prisoners in Pakistan were being treated well, Singh said: "One report had said his hands had been cuffed...if anybody says Indian prisoners were treated well in Pakistan, I can fish out statement of others who say otherwise."