KARACHI: Pakistan released 147 Indian fishermen from Malir Jail in Karachi on Sunday as a goodwill gesture.
According to police sources, the fishermen will be taken to Lahore by train from where they will be handed over to the Indian authorities at Wahga Border on Monday.
The fishermen were arrested for fishing illegally within the marine border limits of Pakistan and have completed their prison term.
On January 1, with the start of the new year, Pakistan and India exchanged lists of their nationals, including fishermen, languishing in each other’s prisons.
The Foreign Office said that a list containing the names of 457 Indian inmates incarcerated in Pakistan’s prisons was provided to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Of the total, 399 are fishermen while 58 are common citizens.
It announced that Pakistan will be releasing 147 fishermen on Jan 07 as a gesture of goodwill.
The gesture comes at a time when there are strains in the relationship between India and Pakistan. The heavily militarized Line of Control (LoC), dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries, so often witnessed skirmishes and ceasefire violations last year.
India breached the ceasefire on the LoC and Working Boundary on more than 1300 occasions in 2017 alone, which led to over 50 civilian casualties and more than two hundred others sustained injuries. NNI