India on Monday released 11 Pakistani prisoners and handed them over to authorities at the Wagah border post, PTI reported. The Pakistani prisoners were repatriated after they had completed their prison terms, following verification of their credentials by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

The released prisoners were identified as Mohammad Javed, Mohammad Sajid, Zakir Ali, Rishi Mahender Kumar, Masood Akhtar, Murtaza Aqib, Asif Khan, Qari Mohammad, Shokat Ali, Rashid Ahmed and Saifullah. Four of them were interned in jail in Jammu and Kashmir, three were in Rajasthan, two in Punjab and one each in Delhi and Haryana. Most of the prisoners had inadvertently crossed over to India. Most of them are from the province of Punjab in Pakistan and are in their mid-30s.

The release of the prisoners comes three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi exchanged greetings with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana. Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated of late, with repeated incidents of cross-border firing, unrest in Kashmir and the capture of an Indian in Karachi, Kulbhushan Jadhav, whose execution has temporarily been stayed by the International Court of Justice.