Pakistan to free 100 Gujarat fishermen
Pakistan to free 100 Gujarat fishermen
Agency, 23 December, 2009
Pakistan has ordered the release on humanitarian grounds of 100 Indian fishermen, most of them from Gujarat, languishing in prison for “illegally venturing” into its territorial waters, the Pakistani prime minister’s office said.
“As a humanitarian gesture, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has decided to unilaterally release 100 Indian fishermen who have been in Pakistani custody,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement released late on Tuesday.
A prison official in the port city of Karachi, where the fishermen are being kept, said nine children were among the group of 100 to be released.
“We have made arrangements to release 100 fishermen, as directed by the government, out of the 618 currently being held in Karachi jails,” said Shahab Siddiqui, assistant superintendent of Karachi’s Malir prison.
They would be repatriated on Thursday, Gilani’s office said.
Pakistan had also proposed the revival of a joint judicial committee to resolve the issue of prisoners and fishermen in each other’s custody, the office said.
Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have been strained since an assault in the Indian city of Mumbai in November last year by Pakistani-based militants.
A peace process has been in suspended motion, and there has been no progress towards getting it resumed. Analysts say another militant strike in India could risk bringing the neighbors to the brink of conflict.
The two countries frequently arrest each other’s fishermen for encroachment and often release them as a show of goodwill.
There are about 500 Gujarat fishermen languishing in Pakistan jail. Many of them have completed their prison period. Earlier Pakistan used to free seized boats along with the arrested fishermen, but for last two years only fishermen are released. Pakistan has about 433 Gujarat boats worth crores of Rs.
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Mer Moova madina, tamne Xmas darmiyan Bhartiyona hako nu bhan nathi?
Joowo A sharmnak dastan. Sonia and Rajiv Xmas manave che ne Bichara Nirdosh Gujarati Machimaro haju Xmas puroo thavani rah Jove che!
Dawn News.
Fishermen release delayed due to Indian failure: officials
Wednesday, 23 Dec, 2009
The detainees chanted slogans against their govt after learning they wouldn’t make it home on Dec 24, said witnesses. —File photo by Reuters
PAKISTAN
Senate committee passes resolution on prisoners
Senate committee passes resolution on prisoners
KARACHI: A Pakistani prison official Wednesday accused India of delaying his country’s plans to release 100 Indian fishermen by failing to make timely travel arrangements for them.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered Pakistan to hand over the fishermen on Christmas Eve as a ‘gesture’ to its rival, more than a year after relations seriously deteriorated following the Mumbai attacks.
The South Asian neighbours frequently seize each other’s fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea.
Prison authorities in the southern port city of Karachi invited journalists to attend a send-off ceremony for the Indians but the detainees were instead told they would not be leaving as planned, an AFP photographer said.
‘The Indian government has informed the Pakistani interior ministry that they could not make arrangements to receive the fishermen on December 24,’ the deputy superintendent of Karachi jail, Shakir Shah, told AFP.
‘They said a new date will be communicated in January, after Xmas Holidays.,’ he said.
Pakistani witnesses said some of the detainees chanted slogans against their government, saying they were ‘disheartened’ by the news.
Authorities in Pakistan estimate that nearly 200 Pakistani fishermen are languishing in Indian jails. Indian authorities say nearly 500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.
In the past, the two countries have periodically released hundreds of detained fishermen in prisoner exchanges.
But relations between New Delhi and Islamabad plummeted after 166 people were killed in attacks on Mumbai in November last year which India blamed on Pakistani gunmen. —AFP