File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Pakistan and India on Monday marked the New Year by exchanging, through diplomatic channels, lists of prisoners in each other’s custody, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office.
In accordance with the Consular Access Agreement, 2008, both countries are required to exchange the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on Jan. 1 and July 1 annually. The Foreign Office said the Government of Pakistan provided a list comprising 231 Indian prisoners—47 civilians and 184 fishermen—to a representative of the High Commission of India in Islamabad.
Similarly, it said, the Government of India had shared a list of Pakistani prisoners in its jails to an officer of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. According to the list, there are presently 418 Pakistanis—337 civilians, 81 fishermen—in Indian jails.
“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,” read the statement. It said a request for grant of consular access to missing defense personnel of the 1965 and 1971 wars, as well as special consular access to 77 civil prisoners, was also reiterated.
Also on Monday, Pakistan and India exchanged annual lists of each other’s nuclear installations and facilities in accordance with the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities. Under the agreement, inked on Dec. 31, 1988 and coming into force on Jan. 27, 1991, both countries must inform each other of such installations on Jan. 1 of each calendar year.
“Pursuant to Article-II of the Agreement, the list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” read the statement. It said the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had simultaneously handed over a list of India’s nuclear installations and facilities to a representative of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.