The authorities have freed 20 Indian fishermen who spent four years in prison in Karachi for violating Pakistan’s territorial waters, an official said.
Arshad Shah, a prison official, said late Sunday the group left the Karachi central prison and boarded a bus for Lahore. Shah said they would be handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border crossing.
Shah said 588 more inmates were in the prison awaiting completion of legal formalities.
Both India and Pakistan periodically arrest each other’s fishermen for allegedly crossing the water frontiers in search of a better catch. But both sides every year release some inmates after authorities negotiate and fulfil legal formalities.
The two nuclear-armed neighbours, who gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947, are archrivals mainly because of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The region is divided between them but both claim it in its entirety.
The two sides have strained relations since India unilaterally abolished the autonomous status of occupied Kashmir in August 2019.
