Pakistan releases prisoners; India urged to reciprocate


Pakistan releases prisoners; India urged to reciprocate
Released Indian fishermen prisoners arrive at the railway station in Karachi on August 2, 2015. AFP photo

Released from prison by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture, 163 Indian fishermen held for violating Pakistani territorial waters, have arrived in India via Wagah / Attari border. The released prisoners include five boys aged between 10 and 14.

Welcoming the move, the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) has in a press statement appealed to the Indian government to reciprocate by releasing Pakistani fishermen from its custody.

At their meeting on July 10, 2015, on the sideline of Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Ufa, Russia, Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif had agreed to release and repatriate all the fishermen from their custody in next 15 days along with boats.

“The spirit of Ufa needs to kept alive and the committment made in the joint statement must be implemented in letter and spirit,” says PIPFPD.

The fishermen were freed on Sunday from Malir jail in Karachi.

“We have a total 660 Indians in the prison and most of them are fishermen, who were arrested for violations of territorial waters in the Arabian Sea during the last two years. We have (today) released 163 fishermen as a goodwill gesture,” jail superintendent Muhammad Hassan Sehto told AFP.

A 10-year-old from India’s Gujarat state, who spent eight months behind bars, left with tears of emotion.

A 12-year-old named Bharat said he had been incarcerated for 18 months “just because there is no line in the water (between India and Pakistan)”.

Pakistan’s leading charity the Edhi Foundation paid the travel expenses of the Indians and presented them with gifts on their departure from the railway station.

Each country often arrests the other’s fishermen, along with their boats, since many fishing boats lack the technology to check their location.

India and Pakistan also use the releases as expressions of goodwill.

Three gunmen stormed a police station and killed seven people in Gurdaspur, India, last week and India’s home minister claimed they came from Pakistan.

There has also been a flare-up in violence along the de facto border in Kashmir in recent weeks. The territory is divided between the two countries but claimed in full by both.

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One thought on “Pakistan releases prisoners; India urged to reciprocate

  1. Baldev Chandpuri

    Fighting for peace of land ,what happens next , cops lock both the brawlers and same will happen to two nations if the fight continues nature’s cops will catch brawlers.We are mighty people so why fight like donkies .Feel sorry for kashmiris caught in between.let us be sensitive and tolerant to each others humans .Youngsters of both countries may nature help you to spread rainbow of peace for all beings living in indian subcontinent .let us not cut this shop in to multi small shops what kind of intelligentsia are we ?world revolves, days and nights come and go rest of the world laughs at our multi nation theory .

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