Now 60 years old, the Indian citizen was released on the order of President Pervez Musharraf, said Javed Latif, superintendent of the prison.

“I am seeing the lights, the hustle and bustle. I feel like I’m in some other world,” he told the Associated Press while being driven through Lahore. “Listen, I am laughing. I don’t remember the last time I laughed like this.”

Some people showered rose petals on the car carrying Singh as it drove out of the Kot Lakhpath prison. The release was beamed live by all Pakistani news channels.

Shortly after his release, Singh offered prayers at Gurdwara Dera Sahib, where

Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was martyred and which is located near the Badshahi mosque built by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. “I am happy to be released and thankful to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf,” he said.

Later, Singh was taken to a five-star hotel where he would spend the night before being driven to the Wagah border on Tuesday to be reunited with his family, which spent all of Monday with his photos in hand waiting for him.

Singh is scheduled to be united with his family at 11 am Tuesday. “Tell my family I am joining them tomorrow morning. I am not dead... I got a new life,” he said.

A former policeman from Hoshiarpur in Punjab who became a trader in electronic goods, Singh was arrested during a business trip to Rawalpindi in 1973, said Pakistan’s Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney, who was instrumental in Singh’s release. He was convicted and sentenced to death by a military court in Lahore, but the Government stayed his execution in the late 1970s and Singh’s case then languished. Burney said some of the paperwork on Singh was missing.

Initially, Singh had been in touch with his family through letters, but that contact broke down 24 years ago after he was shifted repeatedly between prisons.

Singh’s only communication with his family over this time was a single letter that he received from them many years ago.

Burney said in a statement that he had been looking for Singh for quite some time but had been unable to locate him because for the past few years, Singh had been known in prison by the name of Ibrahim. The minister learned of Singh’s identity in December during a visit to his jail and pleaded with Musharraf to grant him clemency on humanitarian grounds. Musharraf “kindly ended his death sentence and issued orders for his release” last week, Burney said. “Getting Kashmir Singh released is like Eid for me,” the minister added. “India-Pakistan ties will be strengthened by this.”

Suresh Reddy, the visa counsellor from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, went to Lahore to hand over Singh’s travel documents at the jail. “Singh is in sound health. He has been following the news about his case on radio and TV and is excited at the prospect of seeing his family,” Reddy said.

Burney will be travelling with Singh on Tuesday to see him reunite with his wife and children.

“My real purpose in going with him to India is that when this pair of swans meet after 35 years, I want to capture it with my own eyes,” Burney said.