The Nome Nugget

India Returns
21,809 Anti-Reds
To U.N. Command

PANMUNJOM. (AP) -- India completed early Thursday the historic turnover of 21.809 anti-Red prisoners to the U.N. Command as North Korean broadcasts declared the action "destroys" the armistice.

The last prisoner, a Chinese, was turned over at 12:55 a.m., at the end of a surprisingly smooth operation during which the North Korean and Chinese captives often sang and cheered in the rain and mud.

The Indian Command announced that 14.227 Chinese and 7.582 North Koreans were turned out of the compounds at Panmunjom, ending more than three years of captivity for many of them.

The Indians said 72 Chinese and 32 North Koreans asked to go home or to a neutral country during the operation, which began Wednesday morning.

The Communists, who had protested the turnover plans bitterly, made no threatening gestures as the prisoners streamed southward.

The U.N. Command has promised all of the prisoners their freedom at midnight Friday.

Red China's Peiping radio Wednesday night repeated it's warning that "any unilateral action with regard to the prisoners of war is absolutely impermissible."

But the warning was mildly worded and officials said the Reds apparently had accepted the Indian Command's decision to return un-repatriated prisoners as an accomplished fact.