Calmer Waters: Pakistan frees 179 Indian fishermen

KARACHI: Pakistan has freed 179 Indian fishermen who were imprisoned for violating territorial waters, the prisons chief said on Saturday. “We have released 179 Indian fishermen and a civilian prisoner who had completed their sentences,” prisons chief for Sindh Ghulam Qadir Thebo told AFP. They were sent to Lahore by bus, where they will cross the border on Sunday, he said. He added that 360 other Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen, remained in jail. Pakistan and India frequently seize each other’s fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2012.