Fears are growing for the welfare of two prisoners from the region held in India as tensions mount over a possible nuclear war.

As India and Pakistan gear up for war over the disputed territory Kashmir, and Britons have been advised to leave, Peter Bleach and Ian Stillman are both seriously ill and languishing in Indian jails.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has already raised concerns about the two men at a meeting with Indian Home Minister Kal Advani.

Ian Stillman, 51, who is deaf and has only one leg, was sentenced to 10 years in jail after being convicted of possessing cannabis last year.

Attempts to free the jailed charity worker, who has maintained his innocence, have so far failed.

Mr Stillman is diabetic and his family are worried after he experienced loss of feeling in his good leg - a symptom of diabetes. He lost his first leg in a motorcycle accident.

His sister Elspeth Dugdale, 40, of York, said yesterday: "He's in a very vulnerable position because he's in a jail only 100 miles from Kashmir. "We want the Foreign Office to act extremely quickly and get him out of there, at least to a prison in southern India."

Peter Bleach has been in jail, in Calcutta, for more than six years for his part in dropping arms and ammunition to rebels in West Bengal.

He has always maintained he was helping British intelligence and Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken up his case.

But he is seriously ill with TB and has had tests to confirm which type.

Oceana, his elderly mother, said she was extremely concerned for her son's welfare as tensions rose between India and Pakistan.

Said Mrs Bleach, who lives in Brompton-by-Sawdon, Scarborough: "It's all very well advising people to get out of the country but Peter can't and so he's just a sitting duck.

"The situation is not very good at all."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "With regard to the 24 prisoners who are in India and the seven currently on bail we are monitoring their welfare and are in touch with their families.