[This article is supported by CFLI]
Nov 19, 2025
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
Dozens of Pakistani fishermen remain imprisoned in India despite completing their sentences, caught in a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by diplomatic paralysis and alleged violations of international maritime law.
UN laws violated
The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) has renewed its call for the repatriation of remaining Pakistani fishermen held in Indian jails, alleging that both countries are violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) by failing to promptly release fishermen seized for crossing territorial waters.
“Both nations are violating Article 73 of the UNCLOS,” PFF Central President Mehran Shah told Voicepk. According to Shah, Article 73 prohibits the arrest of fishermen from Pakistan or India for unintentionally crossing maritime boundaries and mandates their early release if detained.
The convention’s provisions are clear: Clause 2 of Article 73 states that “arrested vessels and their crews shall be promptly released upon the posting of reasonable bond or other security.” Clause 4 further specifies that coastal state penalties for fisheries violations “may not include imprisonment, in the absence of agreements to the contrary by the States concerned, or any other form of corporal punishment.” Both India and Pakistan are signatories to UNCLOS.
33 Pakistani fishermen still in Indian jails
Currently, 33 Pakistani fishermen remain imprisoned in India following the repatriation of 48 fishermen in September. Shah raised this issue at a recent three-day festival in Badin that highlighted longstanding problems faced by fishing communities.
“Dozens of Pakistani fishermen continue to languish in Indian prisons while their families remain in severe distress and financial constraint,” Shah said. He emphasised that the imprisoned fishermen belong to impoverished families and are deprived of basic facilities and fundamental rights.
Adding to their vulnerability, Shah noted that “the federal and provincial governments still do not recognise fishermen as formal labourers, due to which they remain deprived of benefits and protections available to other workers.”
The scale of the problem is significant. On September 9, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi facilitated the repatriation of 67 prisoners—19 civilian prisoners and 48 fishermen—via the Attari-Wagah border crossing.
According to prisoner lists exchanged between India and Pakistan in July, there were 463 Pakistani prisoners, including 81 fishermen, held in India. Pakistan, meanwhile, detained 246 Indian prisoners: 53 civilians and 193 fishermen.
Foreign Ministry urged to expedite fishermen’s repatriation
Senator Shahadat Awan of the Pakistan Peoples Party, a former law minister, has written to the federal foreign affairs secretary highlighting the plight of these detainees.
“A significant number of these detained fishermen have completed their sentences, yet remain in custody, resulting in prolonged suffering for them and severe emotional and financial hardship for their families back home,” Awan wrote in the letter, a copy of which is available with Voicepk.
Awan told Voicepk that he has also written letters to international organisations including Red Cross/Red Crescent and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants for requesting intervention regarding Pakistani fishermen detained in Indian jails. He said the plight of such prisoners were a major concern of human rights on both sides of the border.
In the letter to the foreign secretary, Awan said he requested immediate diplomatic engagement with India to secure the release of Pakistani fishermen who have completed their sentences or whose cases are pending. Awan also called for the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to actively pursue consular access, monitor detainee welfare, verify updated lists, and provide necessary legal and humanitarian support.
The senator proposed establishing a Pakistan-India Joint Humanitarian Mechanism exclusively for the periodic release and exchange of fishermen, building on previous goodwill gestures between the two countries.
“The safe return of these fishermen would not only provide immense relief to their families but also contribute positively to regional confidence-building and humanitarian cooperation,” Awan stated.
Pakistan-India Judicial Committee on Prisoners in limbo
The bureaucratic mechanisms designed to address this humanitarian crisis have collapsed. 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 left prisoners on both sides in limbo.
Muhammad Tahseen, coordinator of the Pakistan chapter of the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), highlighted a troubling lack of transparency in an earlier interview.
“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.”
Tahseen noted that “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.” He pointed to significant delays in granting consular access and lengthy nationality verification processes as key factors worsening the situation.
Geopolitical Shadows
In May, during a period of heightened Pakistan-India border tensions, hundreds of prisoners on both sides—including those who had completed their sentences—remained stranded in each other’s jails. Nearly 300 such prisoners were languishing in detention facilities on either side of the border.
The May 6-10 conflict, which ended only after U.S. mediation, pushed the humanitarian plight of these prisoners further into the shadows of geopolitics.
Signs of a thaw?
However, recent developments suggest a potential thaw in relations between the South Asian nuclear neighbours. Following the September 9 repatriation of 67 Pakistani prisoners, another Pakistani prisoner was returned from India on September 29.
In another positive gesture, Pakistan issued visas to 2,100 Sikh pilgrims from India to attend Baba Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary celebrations at Nankana Sahib district and other holy Sikh sites in Pakistan.
Whether these goodwill measures will translate into sustained diplomatic progress on prisoner repatriation remains to be seen. For the families of fishermen still behind bars, each day of waiting brings continued financial strain and emotional anguish.