|
Lok Sabha
The Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri E. Ahamed told the Lok Sabha today that according to available information, there are about 923 civilian prisoners, 371 fishermen and 54 Prisoners of War in Pakistan jails. However, Pakistan has acknowledged the presence of 182 civilian prisoners only and does not acknowledge presence of any Indian POWs in Pakistan.
The Minister said that the Government has taken up the matter of release of Indian prisoners through diplomatic channels and high level contacts from time to time.
He informed that during the Foreign Secretary level talks held on December 27-28, 2004 at Islamabad it was agreed that immediate notification would be provided to the respective High Commissions through the Foreign Ministries of the arrested Indian/Pakistani nationals, consular access would be given to all the civilian prisoners (including fishermen) held in each other’s country within three months from the date of their arrest and repatriation would be done immediately after completion of sentence and nationality verification.
The Minister further informed that during the visit of External Affairs Minister to Pakistan from February 15-17, 2005 and during the visit of President of Pakistan to India from April 16-18, 2005, the issue of early release and repatriation of all the Indian fishermen along with their boats was taken up.
Shri Ahmed said that Pakistan released 800 Indian fishermen between January and March 2005, viz. 266 on January, 06 and 534 on March 22, 2005. There are about 198 Indian fishing boats in Pakistan’s custody, which were detained between October 2003 and April 2005. The Government has repeatedly taken up the matter with Pakistan.
The Minister was replying to a question by Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Sh. Chandra Mani Tripathi and Sh. E. Ponnuswamy.
AK/SK/JA
|
