ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan government on Saturday handed over a list of 546 Indian prisoners, 52 civil while 494 fishermen who erroneously crossed into Pakistan waters and landed in the hands of authorities to the Indian High Commission.
This step is consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement between Pakistan and India, signed on May 21, 2008, under which both countries are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody twice a year, on January 1 and July 1, respectively. The Indian government will also hand over the list of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The comparison between the prisoners list provided by Islamabad to Indian authorities on July 1 with the list that handed them over on January 1 this year shows following results.
In the list issued in January, the civilian prisoners stand at 54 against the figure of 52 issued right now while the fishermen in January’s list was 297 which swelled to 494 in the current one. The total number of fishermen released in January was 219 while Pakistan would be releasing another 77 fishermen and one civilian on 10th of this month.
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