May 15, 2025
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
Hundreds of prisoners on both sides of the Indo-Pak border – including those who have completed their sentences remain stranded in each other’s jails, following recent military tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors that have stalled their release. There are nearly 300 such prisoners who are languishing in jails on either side.
The May 6 to 10 conflict, which ended only after US mediation, has pushed the humanitarian plight of these prisoners further into the shadows of geopolitics.
“Security has been significantly increased for these detainees,” confided a Punjab prison official who requested anonymity. “This includes separate confinement, restricted movement, and limited interaction with other inmates.”
The enhanced security measures mirror those implemented across the border. Chandranath Sinha, Minister-in-Charge of the Department of Correctional Administration in India’s West Bengal state, confirmed to the Press Trust of India that security for Pakistani prisoners had been heightened as a precautionary measure.
“Security around these prisoners is always something extra compared to what we have for other prisoners,” Sinha stated. “This is to avoid any kind of untoward incident. The security is reviewed from time to time under the constant watch of senior officers.”
Diplomatic deadlock
According to official lists exchanged on January 1, 2025, 108 Pakistanis in Indian custody and 183 Indians in Pakistani jails have already completed their sentences—yet remain incarcerated. Their continued detention represents not just a diplomatic failure but a profound human tragedy.
Before the recent hostilities, there had been small signs of progress. In February, Pakistan released 22 Indian fishermen, while India repatriated five Pakistani prisoners. One Indian fisherman died in a Pakistani jail in March, his body subsequently returned to his homeland.
The stories of those released provide glimpses into the complex and often arbitrary nature of these detentions. Masroor, a Pakistani man from Karachi released in February, had entered India in 2008 on a six-month visa but was arrested after overstaying. Initially sentenced to life imprisonment, he was finally released after 16 years following an appeal.
“I lost the best years of my life over a visa violation,” Masroor told reporters after crossing the border back into Pakistan, his voice trembling as he described his plans to reunite with family members who had long given up hope of seeing him again.
Another Pakistani prisoner, Jafar Hussain, spent 17 years in Alwar jail in Rajasthan on espionage charges before his release. Nand Lal, who claimed he had traveled to India to reclaim ancestral property, was imprisoned for seven years after relatives reported his overstay to authorities.
Fishermen caught in contested waters
The majority of detainees are fishermen who inadvertently crossed poorly demarcated maritime boundaries. According to the latest prisoner exchange lists, Pakistan currently holds 217 Indian fishermen, while India has detained 81 Pakistani fishermen.
Mustafa Mirani, chairperson of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), told Voicepk that Pakistan’s National Commission of Human Rights had facilitated the repatriation of over 400 Indian fishermen in the previous two years.
“Pakistan’s goodwill gesture was not reciprocated by India with regard to the release of Pakistani fishermen imprisoned there,” Mirani noted. He added that while the Gujarat state government provides financial assistance to families of Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan, Pakistani authorities offer no similar support to the families of their detained citizens.
Most of these fishermen are sole breadwinners for their families, making their continued detention particularly devastating for their dependents.
“Each day these fishermen remain in jail, their families sink deeper into poverty,” Mirani explained. “Children drop out of school, medical care becomes unaffordable, and the psychological trauma affects everyone.”
Cross border committee on prisoners dormant
The bureaucratic machinery designed to address this humanitarian issue has broken down. The Pakistan-India Judicial Committee on Prisoners, established in 2007 to facilitate prisoner identification and release, has been inactive since 2013 due to deteriorating bilateral relations.
In 2018, India nominated its members to revive the committee, but Pakistan has yet to reciprocate. This institutional paralysis has significant consequences for prisoners on both sides.
Muhammad Tahseen, coordinator of the Pakistan chapter of Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), highlights a troubling lack of transparency. “There is no independent mechanism to verify the accuracy of prisoner lists exchanged between the two countries,” he explained. “The actual number could be higher on both sides as neither country specifies which jails these prisoners are held in.”
The verification process itself presents another obstacle. Pakistan’s Foreign Office has urged India to provide consular access to 38 defense personnel who went missing during the wars of 1965 and 1971. Meanwhile, India has requested consular access to 18 individuals believed to be Indian citizens currently held in Pakistan and asked for expedited nationality verification for 76 detainees thought to be Pakistani.
Calls for humanity amid hostility
As tensions escalated in the first week of May, civil society organizations on both sides issued urgent appeals for restraint. In a joint statement on May 9, the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and the World Forum of Fisher Peoples implored both governments to “step back from the brink of war” and consider the humanitarian consequences of continued conflict.
“The governments in India and Pakistan act in violation of their domestic and international laws by keeping fishermen incarcerated despite completion of their sentences, which normally is around six months,” Tahseen noted. He pointed to significant delays in granting consular access and lengthy nationality verification processes as exacerbating factors.
Advocates like Mirani suggest that prisoner releases could actually serve as confidence-building measures in the current climate. “Both governments should release each other’s fishermen who have completed their sentences as goodwill gestures to kickstart the process of de-escalation,” he proposed.
Such humanitarian initiatives have historically provided diplomatic openings during periods of tension between the two nuclear powers. However, with both countries currently focused on military and strategic concerns, the fate of these prisoners hangs in the balance.
For families waiting on both sides of the border, the geopolitical calculations matter little compared to the simple hope of reunion with their loved ones.
“These prisoners are not just statistics,” Tahseen emphasized. “They are fathers, sons, brothers whose only crime in many cases was being in the wrong place at the wrong time or crossing an invisible line in the water while trying to earn a living.”
As India and Pakistan navigate their complex relationship in the aftermath of their latest military confrontation, the plight of these forgotten prisoners remains a poignant reminder of the human cost of the decades-long conflict—and perhaps an opportunity for a small but meaningful step toward reconciliation.
In January 2025, India and Pakistan exchanged, through diplomatic channels, simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other’s custody. Under the provisions of the bilateral Agreement on Consular Access 2008, such lists are exchanged every year on 1st January and on 1st July.
India shared names of 381 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen in its custody, who are Pakistani or are believed-to-be-Pakistani. Similarly, Pakistan has shared names of 49 civilian prisoners and 217 fishermen in its custody, who are Indian or are believed-to-be-Indian.
According to the press statement of the Ministry of External Affairs, the Government of India called for an early release and repatriation of civilian prisoners, fishermen along with their boats, and missing Indian defence personnel from Pakistan’s custody. Pakistan has been asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 183 Indian fishermen and civilian prisoners, who have completed their sentence. In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to the 18 civilian prisoners and fishermen in Pakistan’s custody, who are believed-to-be-Indian and have not been provided consular access so far. Pakistan has been requested to ensure the safety, security and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be-Indian civilian prisoners and fishermen, pending their release and repatriation to India.
From 2014 till date, Pakistan has returned to India 2,639 fishermen and 71 civilian prisoners. In the last two years alone, around 478 Indian fishermen and 13 Indian civilian prisoners have been repatriated from Pakistan.