An Indian man who has spent the past 35 years on death row accused of spying on Pakistan is to be reunited with his family.

Kashmir Singh, 60, a former policeman and businessman, walked free from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore after being granted clemency. He wept as guards finally led him from his cell, after the intervention of Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights.

Mr Singh was due to be reunited with his wife and three children today at the main border crossing between India and Pakistan.“I am very excited — it has been a long wait,” his wife, Surjeet Kaur, said as she waited for him at the Indian border post of Attari. “I had never lost hope of seeing him again.”

Mr Singh was arrested in 1973. He wrote to his family during the first few years of captivity but lost contact 24 years ago because he was moved regularly between prisons.

The former policeman from Hoshiarpur, in Punjab, became a trader in electronic goods and was arrested on a business trip to Rawalpindi. He was convicted and sentenced to death by a military court in Lahore, although his execution was stayed in the late 1970s and the case languished. Some of the paperwork on his case went missing.

His predicament came to the attention of Ansar Burney, the federal Minister for Human Rights, last year. Mr Burney said that he learnt of Mr Singh's case in December during a visit to his jail and pleaded with President Musharraf to grant him clemency on humanitarian grounds.

Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since independence 60 years ago, frequently arrest citizens from the other country who have strayed across the border. Many are accused of spying and languish in jail without any charge. The improvement in relations between the two countries has helped to draw attention to these prisoners.

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