By NNN-Xinhua
Islamabad : The Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy has appealed to the governments of the two countries to establish a fair, rational and humane protocol for the treatment of each country’s nationals tried and held in the other country, official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
The APP quoted Secretary General of the Forum’s Pakistan Chapter, Anis Haroon, as saying that this would particularly benefit the fishermen of the two countries.
They are reportedly arrested at regular intervals for straying into alien territorial waters with no mala fide intentions yet suffer a long ordeal, Anis Haroon commented.
The activist appealed that the two countries need to stop treating those who stray across the border as criminals. Anis Haroon said that rational and humane treatment protocol may help mitigate the plight of detainees, registered to stray due to long land and water boundaries running between the two next-door neighbors.
“This may further help improve the bilateral relations between the two countries,” Anis Haroon said.
There are 53 Indian civil prisoners and 436 fishermen in Pakistani prisons and according to the list provided by the Indian side, there are 133 Pakistani civil prisoners and 14 fishermen in Indian jails, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.