Situationer: Despite exchange of lists: Faceless Pak, Indian fishermen rot in jails

ISLAMABAD: As the sun rose on January 1, 2023, the bureaucracy in the Foreign Office here and at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi dusted off year-old files and, dutifully continuing their New Year tradition, exchanged a list of prisoners in each other’s prisons besides another one about nuclear installations and facilities in their respective countries.

This 1992 agreement to exchange lists of nuclear installations and facilities has greatly helped into ensuring that there has been not a single mishap or accident between the two nuclear states except for an unacceptable incident with India firing a BrahMos missile into Pakistan. It was a confident and cool-headed Pakistan that did not react to the situation, which could have easily gone out of control.

Both sides are at peace anyway at the Line of Control (LoC), where the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement signed four years after the Kargil attack is still holding.

However, nameless and faceless prisoners, including fishermen in jails on both sides that despite having been verified and others awaiting verification with many completing their jail sentence, continue to rot away with many deaths being reported as well as others who have now become mentally challenged.

But no Indian or Pakistani diplomat is willing to comment whether the name of Kulbhushan Jadhav is on the list sent to Delhi. Neither has there been any recent statement from India demanding his release.

Interestingly, on New Year’s Day, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson for the Indian MEA, stated, “India remains committed to addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each other’s country.”

This was the perfect time to call Delhi’s bluff and respond to this ‘commitment’’ but Pakistan ignored the statement altogether.

The News approached the spokeswoman at the Foreign Office several times and each time she said she would ‘revert’ but maintained a stony silence on whether Pakistan was ready to talk to India on “all humanitarian issues”.

Doing so, there was a slight chance that 2023 could be the year where Pakistan could put its foot into a door tightly shut otherwise.

At least, the Foreign Ministry could move in the case of 71 Pakistani prisoners who according to India await repatriation pending nationality confirmation.

But what made waves this week were reports from India and Pakistan about the ashes of deceased Pakistani Hindus who will see their request of being put into the Ganges River realised.

The Indian MEA calls them the Asthivisarjan cases. But there appears to be some confusion whether the sponsorship requirement enabling a blood relative to take ashes across to Hardiwar in India is something new or has the policy been in practice before as well.

Indian diplomats were at pains to explain that this was nothing new and the Modi government was not making any new concessions for Pakistani Hindus. They insisted that even in the past they processed visa requests case by case and the ash immersion cases were something that was requested regularly and if satisfied with the documentation, then a visa was given to a blood relative.

But reports indicated otherwise and claimed that it was for the first time that Pakistani Hindus would not be required to hold a sponsorship for a 10-day visa in which time they would travel to the Ganges. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad has not contradicted or clarified reports in the Pakistani media officially that this has been past practice. The ashes are currently kept at the Hindu temples and crematoriums in Karachi.

Given all matters, this confusion whether Asthivisarjan cases are crossing over without sponsorship is a new or old policy is not surprising.

But even the dead cannot cross over the eastern border without a visa.