Pakistan, India exchange lists of prisoners

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday handed over a list of 231 Indian prisoners including 184 fishermen and 47 civilians lodged in its jails to the Indian High Commission here. Similarly, the Indian government also shared the list of 418 Pakistani prisoners in its custody with a representatives of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi which included 337 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen, a Foreign Office statement said.

The simultaneous exchange of lists took place in pursuance of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008. Under the agreement, both countries are required to exchange the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on 1st January and 1st July, every year. The Government of India has been urged to release and repatriate all those Pakistani civilian prisoners and fishermen, who have completed their respective sentence and whose national status stands confirmed. A request for grant of consular access to missing defence personnel of 1965 and 1971 wars, and special consular access to 77 civil prisoners has also been made.