KARACHI, Jan 6: The government is set to release 180 Indian prisoners, including 179 fishermen, from the Malir jail on Saturday and they will enter India via Wagah border on Sunday, said retired Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference here at the Karachi Press Club, Justice Zahid, who heads a non-governmental organisation, said that 503 Indian fishermen were in Pakistani jails and around 324 fishermen were still in jails following the latest release.

Pakistan is also holding over 319 Indian fishing boats, he added.

He said the fishermen were caught fishing in Pakistani waters, while the lone civilian, Sama Yousuf, who was being released with them had also strayed and crossed over the border on land.

The fishermen, accompanied by policemen for security reasons, would leave the Malir jail in four buses and after travelling by road they would reach Lahore on Sunday morning and then Pakistani authorities would hand them over to their Indian counterparts at the Wagah Border between 10am and 11am.

The retired Supreme Court judge said that he was surprised to see that many a time people residing in Karachi’s coastal villages also came to see off the Indian fishermen, as some of them were Muslims and after partition, some families had migrated while some stayed back so there were many divided families. And when their relatives here came to know that their Indian relatives had been caught and were in Pakistani jail they came to meet them and also came to see them off when they returned.

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum chief Mohammad Ali Shah said that there were over 42 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails while over 183 fishing boats were also being held by the Indians.

He said besides these fishermen, there were over 61 Pakistani fishermen who had been missing for years, some of them since 1993, but had now been located in Indian jails.

He said that these fishermen belonged to Gwadar, Zero Point, Larkana, Jati, Rehri, Chashma Goth, Ibrahim Haidery, etc.

He said that he came to know about them through the Pakistani fishermen who had been caught by the Indian authorities and returned here after serving their sentences.

He urged the Pakistan government to approach the Indian authorities and start the process so that these Pakistanis, many of whom had been considered as dead by their relatives, could be brought back home.

He demanded that Pakistan and India both should declare a zone of 50 miles each on their sides of the border as a buffer zone and both should jointly issue identity cards permitting the fishermen to fish in that zone.

Former federal minister Iqbal Haider urged the Indian and Pakistani governments to release all their respective prisoners who were over 60 years old, women and children on humanitarian grounds.

He demanded that the process of councillor access, verification of citizenship and their trials be expedited so that the fishermen could return to their homes early.

Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research said that besides Pakistan, India also has a sea border with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but when their fishermen crossed over to the other country’s border their fish catch was confiscated and they were told to return. Only India and Pakistan arrest each other’s fishermen when they crossed over, he added.

He demanded that India should adopt a similar arrangement with Pakistan also.

Pointing out that both India and Pakistan issued licences to international trawlers to fish in their waters, he questioned that why the two countries were not issuing licences to each other’s fishermen.

It was also demanded that India and Pakistan demarcate the sea border in Sir Creek immediately.