Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi said on Friday that three Pakistani prisoners in India were repatriated across the Wagah border.
The border, which connects Lahore with the Indian city of Amritsar, is the only active land crossing between the two neighbors. It was closed to general traffic after a brief but intense military conflict earlier this year.
The high commission identified the prisoners repatriated today as Asghar Ali, Ramzan and Muhammad Idrees and said it would continue to work for “the release and repatriation of all Pakistani prisoners in India.”
The Foreign Office (FO) said Sunrise the identities of the arrested fishermen and when they were taken into custody.
Ramzan, 43, from Lahore, was arrested in 2010 by India on charges of illegally crossing the border and possessing narcotics. After receiving consular access, his status as a Pakistani citizen was confirmed in February 2011.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Idrees of Narowal was arrested in 1995 for allegedly crossing the border illegally and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was verified as a Pakistani citizen in 2005, 10 years after his arrest.
Asghar Ali, 39, from Sadiqabad, was arrested for allegedly illegally crossing the border in 2002. His status as a Pakistani citizen was confirmed in 2006.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s fishing community called for the immediate release of fishermen imprisoned in India during a conference at a festival in the coastal area of Badin, while in September, a Pakistani national imprisoned in India, Raqib Bilal, was repatriated across the Wagah border.
In July, the foreign ministries of Islamabad and New Delhi interchanged lists detailing the number of prisoners held in each other’s countries.
According to a statement by the FO in September, “The government of Pakistan handed over a list of 246 Indian or suspected Indian prisoners (53 civilian prisoners and 193 fishermen) to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
“At the same time, the Indian government shared a list of 463 Pakistani or suspected Pakistani prisoners (382 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen) to a diplomat at the High Commission for Pakistan, New Delhi,” FO added.
Authorities frequently arrest and imprison fishermen in both Pakistan and India. On November 1, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said a Pakistani fisherman was arrested by the Indian Coast Guard and forced to perform tasks for New Delhi’s intelligence agency.
The minister said law enforcement detained a fisherman named Ijaz Mallah while he was fishing in the sea.
“In September this year, when he was fishing, he was arrested by the Indian Coast Guard and after the arrest, he was taken to an undisclosed location and coerced and forced to perform some tasks for the Indian intelligence agency,” he said.
Additionally, this month, the fishing community called for the immediate release of Pakistani fishermen imprisoned in India, as dozens of families continue to suffer while their loved ones remain behind bars in the neighboring country, despite constitutional protections and bilateral obligations regarding involuntary maritime border crossings.
Pakistani fishermen released and repatriated earlier this year reported being tortured by Indian authorities, including forced labor, beatings and burning with metal plates.
