Pakistan releases 163 Indian nationals

Local authorities on Sunday released 163 Indian fishermen held for violating Pakistan’s territorial waters as a goodwill gesture amid tensions over the recent disputes in Himalayan territory of Kashmir and an attack on a police station in Gurdaspur, India.

The prisoners, apprehended 10 months ago after straying in Pakistan’s territorial water, were released from Malir District Jail.

The fishermen freed from the Landhi and Malir jails here, include an 11-year-old boy, a Sindh government official said. Eight of these fishermen are Muslims. The fishermen, who had been kept in a Karachi jail for nine months to a year, were put on a train bound for Lahore from where they will cross back to their home country.

The fishermen will be handed over to Indian border security officials on the Wagah border near the northeastern Pakistan city of Lahore on Monday, a Foreign Office spokesman said. We are handing them over to Special branch.

Each country often arrests the other’s fishermen, along with their boats, since many fishing boats lack the technology to check their location.

The neighbours have a disagreement over their maritime border in the Arabian Sea.

India and Pakistan also use the releases as expressions of goodwill.