(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Pakistan yesterday released 163 Indian fishermen held for violating its territorial waters as a goodwill gesture amid tensions over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and an attack on a police station.
The fishermen were freed from Malir jail in the southern port city of Karachi. "We have a total 660 Indians in the prison and most of them are fishermen, who were arrested during the last two years. We have released 163," jail superintendent Muhammad Hassan Sehto said.
Those released include five children aged between 10 and 14. And a 12-year-old named Bharat said he had been incarcerated for 18 months. Pakistan's leading charity the Edhi Foundation paid the travel expenses of the Indians and presented them with gifts on their departure from the railway station.
Each country often arrests the other's fishermen, along with their boats, since many fishing boats lack the technology to check their location.
Three gunmen stormed a police station and killed seven people in northern India last week and India's home minister said they came from Pakistan.
There has also been a flare-up in violence along the de facto border in Kashmir in recent weeks.
The territory is divided between the two countries but claimed in full by both of them.
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