Daily Times

In a welcome move, Pakistan has seen fit to release 40 Indian prisoners, repatriated to their home country. As many as 35 of these prisoners were fishermen. This gesture came just one day after the relative thaw in cold relations between India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit just a couple of days ago. The premiers of both countries shook hands, raising many hopes for people on both sides of the border. Out of all those people the ones who will be smiling the hardest will no doubt be these prisoners who are finally going home to their families after years in prison. If a mere handshake can do so much, one cannot help but imagine what actual friendly relations might do.

This is a humanitarian issue, it always has been but those unfortunate souls languishing away in prisons on both sides of the border need to be delivered justice. A majority of prisoners — Pakistanis in Indian jails and Indians in Pakistani jails — should not even be there in the first place. Many of them have been held without having ever been charged, are sentenced without trial and have been tossed inside because of minor infractions such as staying on after their visas expired, straying into the wrong side of the border or fishing in waters claimed by the other country. It makes no sense to have them in prison, suffering and being a burden on the state. Keeping such individuals in jail reeks of pettiness by the governments on both sides. No crimes have been committed by these people but they are being kept as unwilling pawns to be bartered at will just as this latest release goes to show. It is wholly unjust to keep such prisoners and India and Pakistan both have to grow out of such practices.
While it is a welcome gesture by Pakistan to release these 40 prisoners, it is no less one that should have been done much earlier and according to due process. India and Pakistan are only creating deep ridges of tension in the region because of their unwillingness to sit at the negotiation table and chalk out forward thinking solutions. Composite dialogue truly is the only way forward and both countries will need to rise above their point scoring and petty behaviour to ensure that human rights are respected and the tense atmosphere is dissipated. *