The government of Pakistan has released 151 Indian fishermen from Karachi and Hyserabad prisons as a goodwill gesture on the eve of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Nerandra Modi, a private news channel reported.
Sources said that the 59 Indian prisoners freed from Malir Jail in Karachi and 92 from Nara Jail, Hyderabad have been sent in air-conditioned bus to Lahore, where Pakistan authorities would hand them over to Indian officials at the Wagah border.
The freed Indian fishermen expressed their gratitude to Pakistani authorities for providing them all necessary facilities including good food and healthcare in prisons. The freed prisoners said that they are quite happy over their release and appealed to the Indian government for release of Pakistani fishermen in Indian prisons.
Fishermen from both countries are routinely arrested and their boats seized by maritime security forces in both countries when they trespass territorial waters jurisdictions.
Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid’s NGO has borne the traveling and other expenses of the freed fishermen’s return home.
