The six-member patrol party of 3 Rajput Regiment, which has been missing, was led by a Captain. An Army spokesman said that the Director General of Military Operations had asked his Pakistani counterpart on August 31 to return the Indian patrol team members, in case they had strayed inadvertently into Pakistani territory.

An official statement released in Islamabad said Pakistan had decided to immediately release the two Indian soldiers--Lance Naik Ram Singh and Sepoy Bajinder Singh, ``captured by the Pakistani Armyduring an attack by the Indian troops on a Pakistani post In Shyok-Turtok sector in Kashmir on August 30.''

India has vehemently denied any such attack by its troops and said six of its army personnel, including an officer, had been missing in the Shyok-Turtok region after they went on a regular patrol on the night of 29-30. New Delhi had also asked Islamabad to return all its captured army personnel.

The Pakistani statement said the ministry of Foreign Affairs had requested the ICRC to make appropriate arrangements to receive the two and hand them over to the Indian authorities.