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The Government of India will be releasing 101 Pak civil prisoners and 51 fishermen from the Wagah Border on the 12th of this month. The civilian prisoners are those who have completed their sentences and whose travel documents have been issued by the Pak High Commission in Delhi. 20 of these prisoners would be released from Rajasthan, 10 from Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, 6 from West Bengal, 31 from Jammu and Kashmir, one from Nagaland, 2 from Delhi and one from Maharashtra. The 51 Pak fishermen are those who had been arrested for fishing in the Indian territorial waters and whose travel documents have been issued by the Pak High Commission after nationality verification. States have been advised to bring the Pak civil prisoners as well as the fishermen to the Wagah Border on the 12th of this month for handing them over to the Pak authorities.
The Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri D.S. Mishra has said that arrangements have been made for providing consular access to all Pak civil prisoners who are undergoing sentence or are under-trial and lodged in different jails in the country. During these consular access meetings, officials of Pak High Commission in Delhi will interview these prisoners to ascertain their nationality. Representatives of MEA and MHA will be present during these meetings. The dates and places for consular access and the States/UTs from where Pak prisoners will be given consular access are as under:
Dates
Places
States
12-13 Sept., 2005
Tihar Jail, Delhi
UP, Jharkhand, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi.
19-20 Sept., 2005
Central Jail, Amritsar
J&K and Punjab
26-27 Sept., 2005
Central Jail, Jaipur
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra
These actions are being taken in pursuance of the decision taken at the second round of Home Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan on Terrorism and Drug Trafficking held in New Delhi on the 29th and 30th of last month. At the talks, both sides agreed to implement the decisions arrived at by the Foreign Secretaries in December 2004 on prisoners and reiterated their commitment to provide immediate notification of arrests made by either side, provide consular access to all persons within three months of arrest and release prisoners immediately after completion of sentence and nationality verification. They also agreed to release on 12th September, 2005 all fishermen and civilian prisoners who have completed their sentence and whose national status has been confirmed.
The Government of Pakistan have informed that it will be releasing 371 Indian fishermen and 64 Indian civil prisoners who are lodged in different jails of Pakistan. All these persons will be crossing the Wagah Border on the 12th of this month and will be sent to respective States.
OK/RK/MM
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