NEW DELHI (AP) -- After his release from 35 years in a Pakistani prison on espionage charges, Kashmir Singh stood at the Indian border and hugged the Pakistani cabinet minister responsible for freeing him.

The official thought he was embracing an Indian electronics salesman who entered Pakistan without a passport on a business trip and got swept up in the suspicions and enmity that have characterized the rivals' relations for 60 years.
But three days after walking across the border to a hero's welcome, Singh told Indian reporters Friday: “I did the duty assigned to me as a spy ... I was a regular recruit. I did not open my mouth for 35 years in Pakistan.”
The confession turned what was meant to be a humanitarian gesture into an international embarrassment for the Pakistani government that could imperil hundreds of prisoners on both sides held in similar circumstances.
On Saturday, Singh was trying to undo the damage of his loose talk, telling the private Indian news channel CNN-IBN that his comments were misinterpreted and he had not actually been a spy. But his credibility was in doubt.
“I am shocked to hear these statements,” said Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney, the official who worked for Singh's release.
“It will surely make it difficult for Indian prisoners in Pakistan and Pakistani prisoners in India,” he told CNN-IBN.
Singh's confession was another blow for embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who granted Singh clemency at Burney's urging.
The two countries have arrested many of each other's citizens, including fishermen and others who say they accidentally strayed across the border. Some are imprisoned for years on espionage charges, usually with no contact with their families.
India says there are some 600 Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails. Pakistan says there are some 200 of its nationals in Indian jails.
Singh's confession “certainly weakens the position of Indian prisoners in Pakistan,” said Ashok Mehta, a strategic analyst in New Delhi. “It becomes that much more difficult for the president to pardon them or give them clemency.”
Both countries, which have fought three wars in the 60 years since gaining independence from Britain, are believed to still conduct intelligence missions across the border. But relations have been relatively good since the beginning of a peace process in 2004.
Singh's case is an embarrassment for both sides, but it is more a vestige of the rivals' poisonous relationship of decades ago than a potential cause for renewed distrust, according to analysts.
“These cases are so old, we are talking about the 1960s,” said Mehta. If Singh were a fresh spy engaged in contemporary espionage, the repercussions would be more serious, he said. “But this is history ... I don't think this is going to negatively affect India-Pakistan relations.”
Indian military officials declined to comment Saturday.
Singh, a former policeman, apparently decided to speak out after finding his wife and son living in poverty, not cared for by Indian authorities.
In a news conference Friday in the northern city of Chandigarh, Singh described the lengths he went to to live undetected in Pakistan, including getting circumcised so he could pass as a Muslim, studying Urdu and adopting the name Ibrahim. While in Pakistan, he ate beef, which is forbidden in his Sikh religion, and fasted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Singh said he crossed into Pakistan several times, and also conducted intelligence missions in Afghanistan and Iran.
Singh was arrested in 1973 in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. His story was that he was a trader in electronic goods traveling on business.
He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death by a military court despite repeated denials that he was a spy. The government commuted Singh's execution in the late 1970s but the case languished.
Burney learned of Singh in December and began working for his release, finally persuading Musharraf to grant clemency.
Despite the embarrassment, Burney said he would continue his work to free Pakistani prisoners in jail across the border “even if I have to relinquish the charge as minister.”
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