By Naveed Siddiqui
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India on Monday exchanged, through diplomatic channels, the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody.
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 Pakistan handed over a list of 231 Indian prisoners in Pakistan (47 civilian prisoners and 184 fishermen) to a representative of the High Commission of India in Islamabad.
The Government of India shared the list of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails to an officer of Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi. According to the list, there are a total of 418 Pakistanis in Indian jails (337 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen).
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.
