ISLAMABAD: Pakistan released 20 Indian fishermen who were imprisoned for unlawfully entering its territorial waters, the Foreign Office said Tuesday.
The fishermen were released from a jail in Karachi and transported to Lahore where they were handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border on Monday, it said in a statement.
“These prisoners have been released on completion of their sentences.”
The new move comes amid ongoing diplomatic tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals, which have been simmering since New Delhi scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s decades-long semi-autonomous status in August 2019.
The two countries frequently arrest fishermen for violating each other’s territorial waters due to poorly demarcated water boundaries and ill-equipped boats without the technology to determine exact locations.
Owing to long-standing strained relations between the two neighbours, prisoners are kept in prison for longer periods of time, and in some instances, even after their jail terms end.
“The issue of prisoners is of humanitarian nature and Pakistan expects the government of India to reciprocate the gesture in the same spirit,” the Foreign Office said.
