(Eds: updating with fresh detail, combining related stories) Lahore / Attari, twenty Indian fishermen captured by Pakistan for allegedly entering the territorial waters of the country was handed over to India through the border crossing of Wagah on Monday.
The fishermen, stored in Landhi Karachi officials were released on Sunday after completing their prison department.
A spokesman for Edhi Foundation, a non-profit Social Welfare Organization, said that the fishermen were handed over to the Indian border security force (BSF) at night after fulfilling legal formalities.
“20 fishermen who were released from the District Prison and Correctional Facilities, Malir, on Sundays and taken to Wagi on Monday was handed over to BSF at night after fulfilling legal formalities,” Muhammad Youngis, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, told PTI.
They entered India based on ’emergency travel certificates’ issued by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
When the fishermen crossed to India, they knelt and kissed the ground.
All medically checked, including for Covid-19, officials said in India.
The fishermen will stay for one night at Amritsar, they said, adding that the fishermen would return home to their original place in Gujarat on Tuesday.
Previously, the fishermen who were released, were arrested for illegally entering the waters of Pakistan and fishing without permission, escorted to Lahore by Road by the Edhi Foundation.
The Edhi Foundation also paid Pakistan RS 5,000 to each fisherman as a Gestur Goodwill.
The fishermen were in prison for three to five years to cross illegally to Pakistan.
They said they did not know that their fishing boat floated towards Pakistani waters.
“It was dark and we thought that we were still in India when we were roughly flown by Pakistani coast guards on a large white boat.
They arrested us because they crossed and confiscated our boat,” Suneeel Lal said, the longest.
Serving detainees between 20, which was arrested five years ago.
Lal further said that he was looking forward to meeting his family now, especially his two daughters.
“My daughter is 20 and 17 years old now.
They must have been an adult in five years,” he said quoted by the dawn newspaper.
Bhavesh Bhika, who has served four years in prison, said that the boat he controls towards Pakistan’s waters at night.
“There is no limit on the sea.
We have no way to know that we have violated your borders,” he said.
The official Malir Jail Azeem Thebo said that with the release of 20 Indian fishermen as a good intention on the Pakistani government, there were 568 Indian fishermen who were still left in prison.
Pakistan and India regularly capture rival fishermen for violating maritime boundaries which are poorly marked at some point.
According to the list of detainees exchanged by India and Pakistan at the beginning of this year, at least 628 Indian prisoners were held in Pakistan, including 51 civilians and 577 fishermen.
The Indian government also shares a list of 355 Pakistani detainees in India, including 282 civilians and 73 fishermen.
Fishermen from Pakistan and India usually end up in prison after they were arrested for illegally fishing in their respective territorial waters.
Pakistani NGO Fishermen Forum said that because there was no clear demarcation line in the Arab Sea coastal area between the two countries, fishermen who did not have modern navigation equipment mistakenly crossed the red line and ended up in prison.