Pakistan, India exchange lists of prisoners and nuclear installations & facilities

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - Pakistan and India on Monday exchanged, through diplomatic channels, the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody.

According to a press release issued by the Foreign Office, the simultaneous exchange of lists took place in pursuance of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008. Under the agreement, both countries are required to exchange the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on  January 1 and July 1 every year.

The Pakistan government handed over a list of 231 Indian prisoners in Pakistan (47 civilian prisoners and 184 fishermen) to a representative of the High Commission of India in Islamabad.

The India government shared the list of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails to an officer of Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi. According to the list, there are a total of 418 Pakistanis in Indian jails (337 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen).

The India government 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. A request for grant of consular access to missing defence personnel of 1965 and 1971 wars, and special consular access to 77 civil prisoners has also been made.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India also exchanged the lists of nuclear installations and facilities. The Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India, inter alia, provides that both countries shall inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities, falling within its definition, on January 1 of each calendar year. Signed on December 31, 1988, the Agreement entered into force on January 27, 1991.

Pursuant to the 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. Simultaneously, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs also handed over the list of India’s nuclear installations and facilities to a representative of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

The two countries have been exchanging the lists since 1st January 1992.