KARACHI: India has released six Pakistani fishermen who were languishing in jails there for more than two years.

A spokesman for the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) said that they crossed into Pakistan through the Wagah border on Thursday evening and would reach Karachi by train on Friday.

He said all the six released fishermen belonged to Badin district.

“After release of six fishermen, there are still 102 Pakistani fishermen languishing in Indian jails,” said the spokesman quoting FCS chairman Abdul Barr as saying.

“Apart from 102 detained in Indian prisons, our 24 fishermen are missing due to bad weather for a few months and we have reason to believe that they were detained by the Indian marine authorities but the news was never shared with our government. We appreciate the Indian government’s move but it falls short of the gesture of Pakistan, which has released some 360 Indian fishermen in a month.”

The Pakistani authorities had set over 350 Indian fishermen free as a “goodwill gesture” last month.

The FCS looks after legal and diplomatic processes for the release of Pakistani fishermen detained in India.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019