Pakistan releases 218 Indian fishermen

Pakistan has released 218 Indian fishermen on Thursday detained in the past 12 months. Senior officials said that this is a goodwill gesture aimed at confidence building measures. This is the second batch of Indian fishermen released by Pakistan in less than two weeks. Pakistan had earlier released 220 Indian fishermen on December 25 last year.

The release was marred by the death of one Indian fisherman Jeena Bhagwan who died of heart attack on Wednesday. His body will be handed over to Indian authorities following a postmortem in the presence of Indian embassy officials.

The fishermen were taken to Lahore where they will be handed over to Indian authorities at Wagah border on Friday.

The fishermen were provided with Rs 500 each and gifts by non-government Edhi Foundation volunteers.

Pakistan and India relations nosedived following attacks in Pathankot and Uri. India had accused Pakistan based terrorists of carrying out the attack.

Pakistani authorities have promised to investigate the matter.

Pakistani government is not hopeful that any improvements in relations can come between the two countries before April this year. “There are elections in Indian State of Uttar Pradesh in February-March and we are not expecting any chances of revival of talks or composite dialogue between the two countries,” a senior government official said.

On Monday Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership in a special meeting to review the foreign policy said in a statement that Pakistan wants peaceful co-existence with its neighbours. New Pakistani Army Chief General Bajwa has also contacted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday expressing his intent to have better relations with Afghanistan. The Afghan leadership invited the General for a visit according to a press release by the military spokesman.