Thaindian News

Islamabad, April 23(ANI): India and Pakistan are working on a proposal for expeditious release of each other’s fishermen inadvertently crossing the maritime boundary for the first time.

The Indian Coast Guard and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency are discussing the proposal, which is meant to reduce the number of fishermen detained for mistakenly violating the marine limits.

Brief details of the proposal indicate that it envisages the release of fishermen at the sea following verifications, if they are found to be violating the maritime boundary for the first time, the Dawn reports.

The Pakistan-India Judicial Committee on Prisoners was formed for furthering the objective of humane treatment of either country’s nationals arrested, detained or imprisoned in the other country, but had been lately inactive because of strained Indo-Pak ties following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The committee was reactivated after the Interior Secretaries’ meeting under the renewed full spectrum dialogue last month.

Committee members, talking privately to reporters, said that they had found a new and a strengthened resolve to improve the plight of prisoners.

The committee suggested that the nationality verification process should be facilitated, and all those prisoners who had completed their sentences and whose travel documents were available, should be repatriated at the earliest.

The committee asked both governments to reconcile the figures of prisoners and fishermen of the other country in their detention at the earliest, and to allow consular access to them in the second week of May 2011.

The next meeting of the committee is likely to take place in June, and the final dates would be decided through diplomatic channels. (ANI)